Derry planning without Murray ahead of Tyrone visit

DERRY are planning without Lachlan Murray for Saturday night’s league clash with Ulster rivals Tyrone at Celtic Park.

The Oakleafers will also be without the injured midfielder Dan Higgins and will have to assess the fitness of goalkeeper Ryan Scullion.

Murray and Scullion were named to start Saturday’s opener against Meath with the latter withdrawn during the warmup at Croke Park, just ahead of throw-in.

“He (Scullion) got a bit of a niggle on Wednesday night and we thought he was going to be okay,” Meenagh said after Saturday’s game.

“He was down to play but he was struggling with his long kicking, so we had to make that change literally two or three minutes before throw-in which wasn’t ideal. That’s just one of them things you have to be prepared for.”

In Scullion’s absence, Magherafelt’s Shea McGuckin stepped in for his league debut.

Lavey’s Louis Regan is the other goalkeeper on the panel, while Odhrán Lynch is on his way back from hip surgery with championship football a potential target.

Lachlan Murray scored 0-6 across Derry’s two McKenna Cup games but picked up a knock in the week of the game and wasn’t risked with the longer-term view in mind.

“We felt that it’s probably better he be out for a couple of weeks now, just to get him right because you could lose him for two months,” Meenagh said.

“We’ll get (to) the break in the league and he should become an option again for us then.”

Dan Higgins is expected to be out for six weeks following a knee injury picked up on Sigerson Cup duty with Queen’s.

Ballinascreen’s Martin Bradley, who broke into the team under Paddy Tally last season, has returned to training but Saturday came too early.

It will be a busy week for the Derry players on the Queen’s Sigerson team with the quarter-final against TU Dublin on Wednesday night in Grangegorman (7.30pm).

While Dan Higgins, their captain, misses out, his younger brother Conall joins Patrick McGurk and Ruairi Forbes in the Queen’s squad.

Forbes sat out last week’s win over Ulster University while Patrick McGurk came on to make a vital impact including an assist for Joey Clarke’s injury time insurance goal.

Check out this week’s Monday review show, a look back at the NFL weekend, including interviews with Jim McGuinness, Ciarán Meenagh and Mark Doran.