Mort a doubt for Sunday?

Well, that's according to Hogan Stand, who report that he picked up a shoulder injury in the first half against Tyrone. Mort was, so they say, "visibly in pain" a few time afterwards. Three times, I'd say, but then each time the pain magically lifted when the ball hit the back of the Tyrone net. Beats Solpadeine every time.

Mort would obviously be a big loss were he to be unavailable for Sunday, a testament to how we'll he's done since coming back into the side. It's almost hard to believe that he was dropped earlier in the campaign, not least because he's been by far our top scorer over the course of the league. (He's got 35% of all our scores, add in Trevor and the Mort family contribution rises to 41%). And, as we know, Conor has a liking for beating Galway on his own. That said, this league campaign has, by necessity, seen plenty of chopping and changing and so it's easy to see how Johnno might shuffle the pack again if Mort the younger isn't fit (Andy Moran into the full-forward line, with a half-forward line of Campbell, O'Neill and Killer?). And, as the Great One said prior to the Dubs match, there'll be no whinging about injuries afterwards if we lose.

Peter Ford has been speaking to the Mayo News about Sunday's clash. It's all the usual stuff you'd expect: didn't really want to meet now, defeat wouldn't matter a jot for the championship, no issue about playing Mayo, lads would like to win the league, blah, blah. No more than our own man, Ford is well able to speak to the papers without really giving anything away.

Pat O'Shea, meanwhile, has been expressing his relief that Kerry are out of the league so they can put their feet up for a few weeks. Pat reckons that qualifying for the playoffs is a positive disadvantage in that it means getting unnecessary hard games at this time of year. Yeah, right Pat. Jack O'Connor always said that the league successes of 2004 and 2006 were instrumental in their All-Ireland wins in those two years (he was always diplomatic enough not to say that meeting Mayo in both finals might have been a factor too). In addition, back at the beginning of March, Kerry captain Bryan Sheehan let it be known in no uncertain terms - a story I covered at the time - that Kerry's clear aim was to reach the playoffs this year. Leave the mind games to the experts, Pat.