Brian Cuthbert expects Michael Shields to be fit for final

Cork football manager Brian Cuthbert expects his captain Michael Shields to be fit for the NFL final against Dublin on Sunday week.

Shields was forced off before the end of last Sunday’s semi-final victory over Donegal with a groin strain, but his manager was positive about his chances of lining out in the final.

It’s less clear whether Donncha O’Connor will be fit for action, however.

“Michael should be okay,” said Cuthbert. “We’ll see exactly what the story is during the week, but we’re hoping he’ll be okay. Donncha had a scan on a toe injury and again, we’ll have to see how he is. The scan was inconclusive so we’ll have to see.”

It’s also unclear when midfielder Ian Maguire will return to the fold.

“There isn’t really a timeline on that, he’s getting closer and closer every week. I’d say within two to three weeks he should be back training, and we’ll see how he reacts to that then.”

After the league semi-final win over Donegal Cuthbert referred to Cork’s 2014 season being “derailed” by their heavy defeat in last year’s league semi-final to Dublin. Last evening he said it was time for Cork to move on and focus on this season, however.

“The way we’re looking at it, last year is finished and it’s time to move on. The consequences of that game last year were what they were, but we have to move on.

“You can’t keep looking back and using last year as a reference point.

“This year’s league has been very different to last year’s league. I don’t think anyone going into this year’s league final will be thinking about what went right in the game against Dublin last year, or what went wrong against them.”

Cuthbert added that Cork had benefited from the league in terms of trying out new players, particularly in the middle of the field: “The fact is that we’ve tried plenty of different players in the middle of the field, and they’ve all brought positives. The case is now that we can go horses for courses with anybody, practically. “If you examined the profile of all the teams we put out in our league games then you’d probably see some common ground. We have players on the bench who are very good, so there’s good competition there.”