Sligo star ‘shattered’ by county snub

SLIGO STAR Paul Taylor has admitted that he is “shattered” to be left out of the county’s training panel for the forthcoming Allianz League campaign.

And despite the snub by new manager James Kearns, the Eastern Harps club man has vowed to fight for his place.

“I have to admit I’m shattered by the news. I know I was injured, but I’ve put all that behind me now and I felt I did more than enough with Eastern Harps during the summer to give me great hope of getting right back to the top in the future.

“I had been seriously troubled by a pelvic injury which kept me out of top class football for almost two years - but I managed to come back and played against Mayo in the Connacht championship last summer.

“Since then, I’ve worked really hard regaining my full fitness because I knew all the time that it would take at least a year to get back to playing to my previous form.”

He added: “This is obviously a blow to me and something I never expected. But I have no intention of allowing this to close the door on my inter-county career.

“I intend to fight back and regain my place on the panel and the only way to do that is by keeping my chin up and continuing with my training. I’ve worked hard on my own fitness because I wanted to be ready for 2004 and the start of the league.

“I’m still only 28 and that is still plenty young enough to play for any county team.”

Meanwhile Fermanagh football has been rocked by the news that a key quartet of players, including Tom Brewster, are heading to Australia until next May.

The players, Brewster, Colm Bradley, Ronan McCabe and Karl Rooney, will miss the entire National League campaign and return just in time for their Ulster opener.

Brewster said: “We have been given training programmes to follow while we are away. I would do a fair bit on my own anyway.”