Wexford rubbish O’Brien departure reports

WEXFORD PRO Alan Aherne has rubbished reports that Leigh O’Brien has opted out of their senior football set up.

“The County Board doesn’t know where the story emanated, but there is no truth to it and Leigh is in contention for a place on the team to play Laois on Sunday”, he said.

“That kind of talk is very mischievous and doesn’t do any good for the county footballers who are enjoying one of their best seasons ever in the league. Leigh trained last night with the rest of the squad.”

Team coach Pat Roe has no injury worries ahead of Sunday’s crucial match against the O’Moore County in Portlaoise where victory would put Wexford into the league semi-final for the first time. The team will be announced after training tonight.

Westmeath welcome back Donal O’Donoghue for their home clash with Mayo. He played with the U-21s at the weekend in the Leinster championship and showed no ill-effects from the leg injury which kept him out of the league game against Tyrone.

Midfielder David O’Shaughnessy is still absent with a knee injury. Páidí Ó Sé will announce his team tonight after training.

Mayo will be without three key players for the trip to Mullingar. Brian Moloney suffered a recurrence of an ankle injury in a seniors v U-21 challenge at the weekend. Ronan McGarrity picked up a knee injury in a basketball game last Saturday night while Brian Ruane has gone to Australia for four weeks.

On the plus side, Trevor Mortimer, who attends university in Leeds, has returned home and will be in line for selection. John Maughan will announce his team tomorrow night.

Kerry coach Jack O’Connor won’t be recalling the An Gaeltacht players to his squad for another couple of weeks. “We’ve decided to let them rest for a while longer”, he said.

“In relation to Sunday’s clash with Tyrone, a number of players picked up bruises playing with their clubs at the weekend. We’ll assess the situation tonight and will probably announce our team later in the evening.”

O’Connor refused to speculate on the return of Maurice Fitzgerald to inter-county duty other than to confirm that the St Mary’s man had been asked to rejoin the panel some time ago.

Sean Boylan has put back naming the Meath team for the trip to Sligo until Friday in order to give Paddy Reynolds the chance to prove his fitness. Reynolds picked up a leg injury in a club game at the weekend and will be given a fitness test at training on Friday.

Dublin’s team coach Tommy Lyons won’t announce his starting 15 until before the game.

Cavan are free of injury for the visit of Galway to Kingspan Breffni Park. Peter Reilly has returned to club football, and is expected to be ready for the Ulster championship against Down on May 16.