Morgan dispels O'Sullivan rumours

No one has been dropped from the Cork senior football panel.

That was the message from Cork football manager Billy Morgan today, responding to a claim from Carbery’s county-championship winning captain Micheál O’Sullivan that he had been dropped from the Cork senior squad.

“No panel has been picked, so no one has been dropped,” Morgan told the Evening Echo today.

“And if any member of the panel was ever going to be left out, I always, as a rule, would ring them and personally let them know. I never made that call to Micheál,” said Morgan.

O’Sullivan, speaking at yesterday’s permanent tsb man-of-the-match function at the Blarney Park Hotel, claimed he was hurt after being the only player from the Cork panel that lost to Fermanagh to have been dropped from a panel of 50 that had been called up for the season.

He also claimed that now Carbery had a selector on the team, he expected west Cork players to get a better look in at county level.

However, Morgan insists that no such panel exists.

“What we have done is called in players for a weights programme and some of them are new faces from the under-21s.

“Some players might not make it, but we view them as prospects and we just wanted to introduce them to the kind of preparation needed at this level.

“But we were always going to wait until after the county championship before picking a panel.

“It will be the middle of December before we finalise our panel for the league.”

Tonight’s U-21 Iarnród Éireann City hurling semi-final clash between Na Piarsaigh and Douglas in Pairc Ui Rinn has been deferred.