Sheehan and Griffin major injury doubts for Kerry

Kerry manager Pat O'Shea has confirmed that both Bryan Sheehan and Tommy Griffin are injury worries ahead of Sunday's NFL Division 1 final against Derry at Parnell Park.

"Bryan has a slight tear in his knee so it looks like he will be out for a few weeks but it shouldn't be longer than that. I would expect him to do a little bit of running," O'Shea said at the Allianz finals press conference in Dublin today.

"Unfortunately Tommy Griffin picked up a hamstring injury in a club game over the weekend - he's a major doubt for the weekend."

O'Shea believes that this is a major blow to his side's preparations as they hope to regain the league title they last held two years ago.

"Personally I feel very, very disappointed for the two lads.

"Both Bryan Sheehan and Tommy Griffin have played in every round of the National League for us and they would have performed exceptionally well for us.

"It's a pity when you get to a National League final that players like that miss out. I know it weakens us but personally it's a bigger disappointment for the lads."

O'Shea will name his team tomorrow after training, after considering the fitness of both Sheehan and Griffin.

The Kerry senior squad have also been without the services of talented players such as defender Killian Young, midfielder David Moran and forward Tommy Walsh in recent weeks due to their success in the U-21 championship.

With the trio hoping the Kingdom can gain All-Ireland success in that grade for the first time since 1998, O'Shea is not willing to risk them this weekend, although Walsh did make a cameo against Laois due to the suspension of Kieran Donaghy.

"At the start of the year we said that their priority should be the Under-21 championship," he said.

"We haven't won an U-21 championship since 1998 and we haven't won a minor since 1994. In a lot of respects it mightn't have hurt the county with regard to bringing players through,but it would be nice to win actual titles as well.

"From our perspective we have a number of Under-21s that are in our senior squad and the experience that they are gaining at the moment and the confidence they are getting is going to be a big boost coming back in.

"That's hugely important from our point of view and it's important that players are getting new opportunities as well.

"Last year Killian Young and Padraig Reidy came in and did quite a good job for us. Obviously we would be hoping that somebody would follow in their footsteps this year," he explained.

Although Kerry have been no strangers to success in recent years on the senior stage in both league and championship, O'Shea does not feel the hunger has been lessened this season.

"It's been a help that we have been able to play so many players in the league and I think hunger and appetite will always be used with some of our players particularly because they have been on the road for so long.

"I think having people that are able to take your position keeps the hunger and I think from our point of view we used the league - like we did last year - to use some players that might be available to do the job.

"If your players aren't hungry to perform on any given Sunday, from our point of view, the best thing is we have a lot of players who are really anxious and really hungry to play for the county."