Injuries blight Connacht final

The curse of the cruciate has struck both the Ballaghaderreen and St Brigid’s camps hard this year and four players will miss Sunday’s Connacht Club SFC final due to torn cruciate knee ligaments.

Ballagh’s Ronan McGrath, Andy Moran and David Kilcullen have all been sidelined by the dreaded injury and will miss the Mayo champions’ first provincial appearance in 40 years.

Meanwhile, St Brigid’s defender Robbie Kelly was also struck down by the same problem two months ago and so misses out on an opportunity to win three Connacht club medals in a row on the field of play.

“We have no new injuries, thankfully,” said Ballaghaderreen captain Stephen Drake. “But there have been no miraculous recoveries either so we will be togging the same squad as for the semi-final.

“Some people seemed to think we wouldn’t be able to cope without Andy [Moran] or David Kilcullen, in particular, but we’ve dispelled those rumours so far.

“We’ve trained well since the semi-final too and we can’t wait to go to battle.”

St Brigid’s injury bulletin is a little more uncertain.

The defending champions — who are aiming to maintain their vice-like grip on the trophy — are sweating on the fitness of goalkeeper Shane Curran, in particular.

The former Roscommon county shot-stopper damaged his hamstring while embarking on one of his trademark solo runs against Salthill-Knocknacarra in the semi-final. The problem was compounded when Curran took a handful of kick-outs later in that game.

“He’s done a fair bit of damage, so we’re very concerned about him,” admitted St Brigid’s manager, Kevin McStay.

“We don’t have a recognised second keeper.

“Our second keeper is our midfielder, sub midfielder, so we’dprefer not to have to use him, obviously, because it reduces our options.”