Daniel Carey and Mike Finnerty
MAYO are expected to find out today (Tuesday) what sanction Keith Higgins will face after the three-time All Star was sent off in Sunday’s Connacht semi-final defeat to Galway.
The 32-year-old was shown a straight red card for hitting out at Damien Comer off the ball, and Croke Park officials were expected to consider referee Joe McQuillan’s report yesterday (Monday).
Mayo have three days to seek a hearing, but aren’t expected to appeal if, as anticipated, Higgins is hit with a one-match ban. Such a suspension would rule him out of Mayo’s first Qualifier on Saturday, July 1, but would leave him eligible for Ballyhaunis’s Mayo Intermediate Football Championship match against Ardnaree next Saturday.
Meanwhile, All Star defender Brendan Harrison, an unused substitute in Salthill, suffered a facial injury — understood to be a broken nose — just six days before the clash with Galway in a Mayo training session.
Harrison was cleared to play on Sunday by Mayo’s medical team, but the Aghamore defender was not one of the six substitutes called on by team management.
The five members of Mayo’s panel who didn’t make it into Sunday’s match-day squad of 26 were Alan Dillon, Eoin O’Donoghue, Donie Newcombe and injured duo Conor O’Shea and Barry Moran.
Club games go ahead
MEANWHILE, the second round of the Mayo senior and intermediate club football championships will go ahead as planned next weekend.
There had been some speculation among Mayo GAA fans that the games may be postponed in the wake of Mayo’s defeat to Galway last Sunday, but a County Board spokesman confirmed to The Mayo News last night (Monday) that the games were proceeding as planned.
As a result, all 31 members of the Mayo senior squad will be rejoining their clubs this week for training ahead of those championship matches.
