O’Rourke hopeful for injured duo ahead of Cavan clash

JOE Oguz and Darren McCurry should come into the reckoning for selection ahead of Tyrone’s Round Three clash with Cavan.

Oguz was ruled out by the medical team after picking up a knock in training during the week, ahead of Saturday’s defeat to Derry in Celtic Park. Darren McCurry should be back and available for selection.

“They’re all working their way back,” O’Rourke said of the walking wounded that also includes 2021 winning skipper Padraig Hampsey and Ruairi Canavan, with Peter Teague back getting minutes with Saturday’s second half cameo.

“We’ll be hoping that Darren in the next couple of weeks should be back in contention,” he added.

“There’s a number of other lads there as well who are all working hard to get back. We’ll know over the next couple of weeks but hopefully the panel will be stronger in two weeks’ time.”

Having managed Glen, O’Rourke was fully aware of the challenge his side faced in Celtic Park.

“We knew it was going to be a great challenge for us and it was,” he said.

“We’ve had a number of lads coming back from injury, we’ve still got some fellas missing with a lot of inexperienced lads playing there.

“From that point of view, it’s a great testing ground for everybody but obviously we need points as well and we would have liked to pick up a couple of points but it wasn’t to be.”

Looking back on Saturday’s 1-15 to 1-12 at the hands of the Oakleafers, O’Rourke pointed to the spell after half time as Tyrone’s promotion hopes took a blow on Saturday night.

It adds even more importance to the visit of Cavan after the league break, with the Tyrone boss expecting “another really tough” encounter.

Tyrone recovered from a Conor Glass goal on Saturday night to lead by a point at half-time thanks to Ciarán Daly’s cracking goal.

The Red Hands had an extra man after Lachlan Murray picked up a black card but it was Derry who controlled the early minutes after the break.

“It was disappointing,” was O’Rourke’s initial thought on defeat. “We had got ourselves in a good enough position at half-time and then we had the black card as well in our favour.

“Derry won the throw-up and they were able to eat into the clock, and we didn’t get the full value for it,” he said of a spell that yielded a Shane McGuigan equaliser as the home side boxed clever

“It was disappointing that maybe our first four attacks of the second half we gave the ball away,” O’Rourke added.

“It’s hard when the opposition get their hands on the ball and they’re moving it about. It’s sometimes hard to close it down and they get a free and then waste another wee bit of time.

“It’s not just as easy as pressing out and winning the ball and having control of the game. Derry, in fairness, controlled the ball fairly well but when we did get it, we got it a few times in that passage of time as well and just didn’t use it well enough to get the ball away cheaply and that cost us as well.

“I can’t fault the endeavour of the boys,” he added. “They worked really hard all through the game. Obviously, Brian (Kennedy) going off robbed us of a bit of physical presence around the middle of the field, which was vital as well and we just came up a wee bit short.”