Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion set to miss out for Dublin

Sigerson Cup stars Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey are unlikely to feature for Dublin in Saturday’s Allianz FL contest at home to Monaghan after both sustained injuries during a demanding 48-hours in Jordanstown.

McCaffrey, who captained UCD to a first Sigerson crown in 20 years over the weekend, failed to finish either the semi-final or final with a hamstring injury.

The 2015 footballer of the year was withdrawn 15 minutes into Friday’s semi-final clash with UL, clutching his right hamstring as he departed the field, and while he started the decider on Saturday, he was again substituted.

McCaffrey’s Dublin teammate Paul Mannion was also removed from the decider, suffering a suspected torn quad muscle midway through the first-half.

“I felt a little tweak, but hopefully it’s nothing too serious,” said Mannion. “It was frustrating. There is never a good time to get injured, but I won’t worry too much about it. We’ll go back and talk to the physio and assess it”

For McCaffrey, the closing minutes of Saturday’s decider made for difficult watching.

“DCU were throwing the kitchen sink at us. They have some big men so it was tough to keep your cool [on the sideline].

"I did not succeed in doing that! Luckily, we got over the line. In the last two years we’ve been beaten in the semi-final.

"This year we felt we’d been knocking long enough and it was time to finish the job. We had a few knocks and niggles and we were missing a few, but we got on with it.”

Having picked up a second All- Ireland medal, a first All Star and the footballer of the year accolade towards the tail end of last year, and now with a Sigerson medal to add to the collection, the 22-year old half-back must be close to pinching himself.

“It’s not too bad at all. The winning doesn’t last forever. In all the teams I’ve been involved in, we had years when we won very little so when the going is good, you enjoy it and there will definitely be other teams who could catch [Dublin] in the near future and we have to work hard to get back to where we were.”

Mannion, having missed last year’s campaign with both UCD and Dublin owing to a semester spent in China, is glad to be back inside the whitewash.

“I have enjoyed it so far and I’m feeling good. It is a nice start to the year.”