Gilroy happy with extra week to get walking wounded ready

PAT GILROY has admitted he will be using the extra week’s break to get his players over persistent injuries.

The Dubs are in limbo waiting on the result of tomorrow’s qualifier clash between Roscommon and Tyrone at Croke Park before finding out who they meet in the remaining quarter-final on Saturday week.

“We can only take the positives out of the fact we’ve to wait an extra week. Under the circumstances, Philly McMahon, Ross McConnell and Michael Darragh Macauley have a chance of playing now because of the extra week,” he said revealing that injury will continue to rule out Eoghan O’Gara and Cian O’Sullivan.

“We’ve written the book in terms of having opportunities that we should have made better use of, and hopefully we have learnt from that. It’s the silly lessons we hope we have learnt and every day you are still learning about the team.”

Dublin seriously struggled to overcome Wexford in the Leinster final and Gilroy admitted the sluggish display that day has been addressed in the weeks since.

“We are under no illusions — another performance like the Leinster final display and we will be out of the Championship. We have worked hard and are focused on things we didn’t do well the last day. Our finishing was poor and we have put a lot of effort into that.

“The best thing is knowing you have to improve. You hope that you haven’t had your best performances yet and it’s crucial that, from now on, you want your big performance – that’s what you want to produce and the response from the lads has been very good.”

The Dubs will train at the same time that Roscommon and Tyrone are in action tomorrow.