Aidan O’Shea nursing groin injury ahead of Galway game

O’Shea nursing groin injury ahead of Galway game

Daniel Carey

AIDAN O’Shea is still nursing a groin injury ahead of Mayo’s Connacht Senior Football Championship semi-final against Galway on Sunday.
The absence of the Breaffy man from the starting 15 – announced at lunchtime today (Thursday) – has been the subject of extensive speculation on social media.
The Mayo News understands that O’Shea – who came on as a second-half sub against Sligo – has been been receiving ongoing treatment for a groin injury, which has impacted on his training both before and since the Sligo game last month.
O’Shea had started 29 championship matches in a row before that game in MacHale Park, Castlebar. In fact, the recent meeting with Sligo was the first championship match he didn’t begin since the 2012 Connacht final, when he came off the bench and scored a point in the 0-12 to 0-10 victory over the Yeats County.
Ironically, O’Shea was recovering from a groin injury at the time, which caused him to miss the 2012 Connacht semi-final against Leitrim.
Mayo manager Stephen Rochford has made one change from the side which beat Sligo for next Sunday’s game in Pearse Stadium.
Jason Doherty will start at left half-forward in place of Aidan O’Shea’s younger brother Conor, who sustained a shoulder injury during a Mayo training session last week.
Burrishoole clubman Doherty was the first substitute introduced in Mayo’s quarter-final win, scoring a point after coming as a first-half replacement for the injured Kevin McLoughlin.
The team was announced at lunchtime today (Thursday), and the accompanying press release from County Board PRO Paul Cunnane noted that next Sunday will be Andy Moran’s 150th appearance in a Mayo jersey. He made his championship debut in New York in 2004.
Aidan O’Shea, Kevin McLoughlin and Alan Dillon were all ‘on the pitch’ for training last weekend, Cunnane told The Mayo News on Monday.
At a press conference held four days after the win over Sligo, Stephen Rochford said regarding O’Shea’s groin injury: “It’s ongoing. It’s just a case of games coming thick and fast. The ground isn’t favourable to those injuries to recover as quickly as we would like so we’ll just monitor him from session to session. But at this juncture, I wouldn’t see any reason why he won’t be fit for the Galway game.”
Mayo’s full match-day squad of 26 players has not yet been publicly released.

MAYO
David Clarke (Ballina Stephenites); Chris Barrett (Belmullet), Ger Cafferkey (Ballina Stephenites), Keith Higgins (Ballyhaunis); Colm Boyle (Davitts), Lee Keegan (Westport), Patrick Durcan (Castlebar Mitchels); Seamus O’Shea (Breaffy), Tom Parsons (Charlestown); Fergal Boland (Aghamore), Diarmuid O’Connor (Ballintubber), Jason Doherty (Burrishoole); Kevin McLoughlin (Knockmore), Cillian O’Connor (Ballintubber, captain), Andy Moran (Ballaghaderreen).