Mohan in fitness race for Saturday’s Donegal rematch

By Michael McMullan

MONAGHAN manager Gabriel Bannigan says Gary Mohan’s injury is progressing well but the Truagh man isn’t back in full training.

The Farney boss said it will be a late call on Mohan’s involvement as they plan for a Croke Park date with Donegal on Saturday.

After a spate of injuries hit the squad last year, Bannigan is content to be picking from closer to a full deck this season.

Michael Hamill has been missing since a knee injury in the second game of the league against Westmeath. They have also been without Bobby McCaul with the torn ACL against Derry in the u-20 campaign. Now, they have their fingers crossed for Mohan.

Speaking to Gaelic Life after Monday morning’s quarter-final draw, Bannigan said the camp were always going to have a difficult hurdle this weekend.

“It was going to be a tough game no matter who we got, whether it be Dublin, Galway or Donegal,” he said.

“Donegal are a brilliant team, we know that. They had a big win over Louth yesterday. It didn’t look as if it was overly demanding, particularly the second half, as they won comfortably.

“The extra week for us is definitely a plus but I think Donegal are a very well-conditioned team. They didn’t have as tough a game as Galway had in Newry so I’d say they’ll be fresh.

“Whoever it was, it was going to be a massive challenge and we’ll just be preparing accordingly. We have a good knowledge of all those teams, but we’ll be focusing on Donegal obviously.”

Last week was a cross between delving into their win over Down and taking a look at aspects of Galway, Dublin and Donegal. Now, it’s all about zoning in on the latter.

Bannigan has been happy with his squad on three fronts. Their buy in, a consistent level of performance and keeping most of their squad injury-free.

At times last year, Monaghan were decimated with key players being missing. There was a spell around their defeat to Roscommon earlier this season when they’d nine players on the treatment table. It was a once off.

“It was very hard to put your finger on it,” Bannigan said of last season. “It was one of those years where we just had a lot of setbacks injury-wise.

“This year, thank God, we’ve had a cleaner bill of health. We’ve had a healthier panel. I think that has contributed to us putting more consistency into our performances as well.

“Gary Mohan hasn’t been back in full training yet,” he said of Mohan’s progress. “We are hoping that this week will go well for Gary.

“It’s going to be right down the wire with Gary whether he takes part this weekend or not. We’re just keeping everything crossed that everything goes well this week and we don’t get any more setbacks from Gary or any of the other lads.”

Check out this week’s review show, looking back at the Tailteann Cup and All-Ireland series, with inteviews from Declan McCusker, Conor Laverty and Jim McGuinness.