Mort's metatarsal

The injury that Trevor Mortimor sustained in the kickaround with the U21s last weekend is far more serious than was first indicated. According to the Mayo News, he's gone and broken one of his metatarsals - those pesky little bones in the foot that footballers these days seem to be forever snapping.

Once upon a time, none of us knew that we had such things as metatarsals in our bone structure. But then along came David Beckham and broke the second metatarsal in his left foot in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup finals. Cue daily medical updates and a general media frenzy. The humble metatarsal hasn't looked back since. When Wayne Rooney followed suit (fourth metatarsal, right foot) shortly before last year's World Cup finals, another media scrum ensued.

Trevor's injury won't generate the same kind of media interest but, thanks to Becks and Shrek, we know a fair bit about how long he's likely to be out. Medical reports suggest a 4-8 weeks recovery period but it can often be longer (Arsenal's Robin van Persie broke one at the end of January and there's no sign of him returning to action two months on) so it could be of the order of 10-12 weeks. That would mean that, assuming we make it there, the earliest we could reasonably expect him back would be for the Connacht final on 8th July. There appears to be little chance that he'll be back in time for the clash with Galway on 20th May.

It's tough luck on Mort, who has had a rough enough time over the past two seasons what with injuries and suspensions. His performances so far this year, notably against Fermanagh a few weeks back, gave room for hope that he was recapturing the form he showed in 2004. Now this.

With David Brady and Kevin O'Neill still out, Ciaran Mac hampered with a recurring back problem and the unfortunate Ronan McGarritty's future prospects up in the air, we're having little luck as regards injuries. To make matters worse, all five are experienced campaigners and so we'll definitely miss their input in the coming weeks. We could certainly do with them down in Cork tomorrow night.

Two changes for Saturday night

Johnno has named the team for Saturday night’s clash with Cork and here it is:

K O'Malley; L O'Malley, J Kilcullen, K Higgins; E Devenney, BJ Padden, P Gardiner; P Harte, D Heaney; A Campbell, A Kilcoyne, G Brady; C Mortimer, A Dillon, A Moran

There are only two changes from the Fermanagh game, one of which is enforced. As expected, James Nallen doesn’t hold his place in midfield with, predictably enough, David Heaney coming in to partner Pat Harte. The injury Trevor Mortimor sustained against the U21s last weekend was obviously serious enough to keep him out of action and, with Kevin O’Neill still out as well, Johnno has given a first league start to Aidan Kilcoyne, at centre-forward. The rest of the team is the same as that which started up in Clones the last day.

The backline is now starting to look settled, though how settled they look under the lights on Saturday night is a different question. While Heaney will bring a more combative approach to midfield, we’re likely to struggle - given Nicholas Murphy’s presence - to win primary ball there. This should mean plenty of ball coming into our backs and it will be a good test for them to see how they cope with that. The wobble the last day has me slightly worried – we wobbled against Kerry last September too and found ourselves comprehensively filleted inside ten minutes. Saturday night will be a big test for all the backs but how Keith Higgins handles James Masters is likely to be of particular interest.

I think we’ll miss Trevor Mort in the forwards. He had a good match there the last day and while he does favour keeping it in the family in terms of how he distributes ball, Conor did nothing wrong with the ball he got, scoring four fabulous points from play on that glue pot of a pitch. Conor seems to play better when the big brother is around and we’ll need a good performance from him if we’re to get anything out of this game so it would have been good to have both Mortimors in the starting fifteen. That said, I’m delighted to see Killer get a starting berth and I’d like it even better to see him put in the kind of performance that would ensure he retains his place for the Dubs the following weekend. Think last year’s U21 final against Cork, Killer! Think 1-6! Kill! Kill!

Some team news for Saturday's match

There's a short report in today's Indo that provides some details about how the sides are shaping up for the match on Saturday night. It confirms what was already known about the injuries to Messrs Brady, O'Neill and Mortimor but states that Ciaran Mac definitely won't feature in the Pairc Ui Rinn clash. No surprises there, I guess. The report also states that Cork's wing-forward Kevin MacMahon, who missed the Dublin game due to 'flu, is recovered and available for selection.

The report also quotes Cork selector John Corcoran who says they remain confident of escaping the drop to Division 3 for next year. After playing us, they have Fermanagh (away) and Limerick (at home) in their final two outings so they could conceivably finish on 8 points. Corcoran claims this could be enough to claim a play-off place but I don't think he's got the maths right there: I think ten points will be needed to have any hopes of a top two finish. It would, however, be enough for them to retain their Division 1 status and so, no more than ourselves, they'll have every incentive to battle hard to secure the two league points on offer.

It's a long way to Pairc Ui Rinn

Indeed it is, especially if you're planning on doing the trip by bus. Those nice people at the AA (think roads, not booze) compute the distance from Castlebar to Cork city at a tasty 173 miles, which they claim could be covered in three hours and thirteen minutes. And the rest: Gort alone takes half an hour to get through and, although the Ennis bypass is now open, there are still plenty of towns to get stuck in on the way. Castlebar to Cork by bus? Well over four hours, maybe even getting on for five. Not an inviting prospect, that's for sure.

Why is all this relevant? Well, it's stated in an article in this week's Mayo News that the plan for the team getting to Cork for Saturday night's match involves trekking down ON THE DAY by bloody bus (sorry, coach, i.e. a bloody white bus), playing the game that evening and then travelling straight back up. It gets better: there's a whole slate of county league matches taking place on Sunday so anyone not completely knackered by the time the magical mystery tour gets back from Cork in the wee hours of Sunday morning will be by the time the final whistle sounds at their league clash the following day.

It's also worth pointing out that our final three league games are on over the coming three weekends. Has anyone given any thought to the likely impact on the county panel from exposing them to two competitive fixtures (one of which takes place 173 miles away, accessible only by bloody white bus) within 24 hours? The risk of injury must be heightened, both arising from the journey itself and from the effect of throwing tired limbs into the fray twice over a single weekend. I'd say that these insane arrangements make it a racing certainty that we'll end up with a few absentees for the visit of the Dubs the weekend after next. Are they travelling down by bloody white bus, I wonder?

Little news of note as yet about the team. The same Mayo News article confirms that David Brady will miss the match, with Kevin O'Neill's participation still uncertain too. Trevor Mortimor is also a bit doubtful having got clocked in a trial match against the U21s (hardy U21s coming through, it would appear) but apparently Ciaran Mac made a 15-minute appearance in the same match, so he must be getting close to a return to active service. Take your seat on the bloody white bus, O Great One.

Johnno reckons (same article again) that it'll be hard to get anything out of the Cork game. He's been saying that every game so far. I believe him this time, even if he is a politician in the making. I'm not sure what Johnno'll say in the event that we don't get a result down in Cork but I'm getting my shout in early - I blame it all on that bloody white bus.

Galway v Leitrim drowned with the shamrocks

Galway and Leitrim were meant to face off at Pearse Stadium yesterday in the U21 Connacht championship for the right to meet the reigning U21 Connacht and All-Ireland champions (that's our lads) on the 31st of this month. However, the match was rained off and is now refixed for Ballinasloe next Saturday (24th) at 3.30pm. My thanks to the excellent Leitrim GAA website (one which, incidentally, puts Mayo's official site to shame) for this information, which the national media deigned not to carry. RTE's sports news (about which there's a rant brewing but not one to be had now) was full of the rugby yesterday evening (the momentous cricket story was only bubbling up at that stage) and only covered the club final action from Croker. Not to worry, I thought, it'll be on Aertel. Hmmm. If there is a more useless information service out there anywhere (and there's another rant queuing up to be had about this so-called service), I'd like to know about it. Up to last night, the fixture was listed but the scores were left blank, as if they couldn't be arsed to fill it in. Then today, they put up the score as "Galway 0-00, Leitrim 0-00". The first-ever scoreless Gaelic football match, I thought, until the good people of Leitrim set me straight. One more reason to shout for them the next day against Galway.

Johnno on the Clones match

The Messiah has been giving his reaction to Sunday's win over Fermanagh in Clones. First off, he makes it clear (rightly) that the six points we've now got does not guarantee us Division 1 football next year. Of course it doesn't: Donegal are the only ones in that happy position at this stage, with ourselves, Kerry, the Dubs and Tyrone fighting for the other three slots. With ourselves and Kerry on six points and Dublin and Tyrone on four, it's very tight and it's easy to see us slide to fifth, were we to lose down in Cork while Dublin and Tyrone have their expected wins over Fermanagh and Limerick respectively. So The Man is spot on there. He's also right that we can expect a backlash from Cork, following their craven capitulation to the Dubs at Parnell Park, and we know - from the way that they hammered Tyrone two weeks previously - that they can do far better, especially at home under the lights at Pairc Ui Rinn. This will definitely be a tough one for us.

Johnno also had kind words to say about the defence which, after that opening wobble, performed very well. Johnno appears to be building the side from the back and it looks as if he's now got the backline he wants. I'd say that the back six that took the field in Clones will all be there when we face Galway in May, unless one of them gets injured or is taken severely to the cleaners in the interim. Needless to say, the same can't be said (for various reasons) of midfield or the forwards but, by the end of the league campaign, we'll have a good idea as to what the team for Galway will be.

In terms of injuries, Johnno says that Kevin O'Neill could be back for the Cork game but that David Brady is unlikely to make it. Pity - this is the kind of game where we could really do with DB's combative presence but it will be good to have KoN back on board. I wonder will this mean giving him another run at centre-forward? In which case, what happens to the younger Brady? Finally, Johnno confirms that Ciaran McDonald is on the way back, but not just yet. He won't be back "for the next game or two" according to The Boss but this leaves open the possibility that he might be back in time for the Tyrone match, where our possible participation in the play-offs could well be decided. It would have been nice to have him back to the face the Dubs: bet they would have loved to have seen him too. Maybe he could have, just for them, reprised his winning point into the Hill, only this time into the Bacon Factory End.

Defence of our U21 titles starting soon

We'll be putting our Connacht and All-Ireland U21 titles on the line soon enough, with this year's championship having got underway over the past few weeks. Indeed, Kerry have already been eliminated by Clare in Munster (yippeee!) and, as this is an old-style one-loss-and-you're-out championship, they're out of the reckoning. So too are the Dubs in Leinster. I'm kinda sorry to see the Dubs go because after last year's epic Senior semi-final, it would be nice to get into the habit of kicking their holes on a regular basis.

We're likely to have a similar start to the U21 campaign as we have at Senior level. Galway must first dispense with Leitrim at home on Paddy's Day but, assuming they do, we play them away on 31st March. There's no word yet about where this will be or what time the throw-in is but, no doubt, all will be revealed nearer the date. Sligo are at home to the Rossies in the other semi-final on the same day.

A new dedicated website for the U21 championship was launched yesterday by the tournament sponsor, Cadbury, and this provides plenty of information on fixtures/results etc. There doesn't appear to be any date fixed yet for the Connacht final but the All-Ireland semi-final (where the Connacht champions play their Munster counterparts) is set for 21st April, with the final on Friday (why dah?) 4th May.

With no back-door, this could be a short campaign but it would provide the perfect lead-in to the Senior championship if the lads could repeat the heroics of last year.