Australian McPhee doubtful for second test

Essendon Bomber Adam McPhee is doubtful for Sunday's second International Rules test.

He has suffered a recurrence of his patella tendonitis injury while in Galway with the Australian squad.

The 22-year-old, who was awarded the Crichton Medal as Essendon’s best and fairest player in the past season, missed today's training due to the injury.

McPhee operated as an interchange player last Sunday and hit just one over.

Coach Garry Lyon will be boosted however by the return to fitness of influential forward Matt Lappin. Lappin has recovered from a quad strain suffered in last week's warm-up win over a Dublin selection.

Collingwood forward Alan Didak and Sydney's Jude Bolton also look like playing some part in Sunday's game.

Nick Dal Santo (groin) and Jason Johnson (medial ligament) took a limited part in training however.

"All we need is 23 and for now, that's what we've got," said Lyon after training. "We came with 26 and we've lost two at this stage, so we've got one up our sleeve.

"McPhee will be right. I didn't want him to train on the back of yesterday and the guys rarely train two days in a row," he added.

"The best thing was the tackling at the end, just to see their competitive spirit come out," Lyon said. "We had to stop before someone got killed."

"I just want to see them get some hands on some Irish blokes. That's what I want to see."

Tomorrow sees the Australian panel return to Dublin, with a final session at Croke Park planned for Friday. The GAA are expecting an attendance of close to 60,000 at headquarters on Sunday.

Marketing Manager Dermot Power confirmed that 40,000 tickets had already been pre-sold for the game.

The mark will still fall short of the 2002 second test crowd of 71,532.

Fittingly the late Cormac McAnallen, who scored Ireland's only goal that day in a 42-all draw, has had this year's International Rules trophy named in his honour.