Armstrong injury blow for footballers

Date Published: {J}

 FRANK FARRAGHER

GALWAY will be without the services of Salthill’s Sean Armstrong and Michael Meehan for their Connacht semi-final clash with Mayo on Sunday week next in Castlebar – although the Caltra clubman does have a chance of making an appearance at some stage in McHale Park.

Armstrong aggravated the old hamstring injury last Sunday morning that has dogged his footballing career and looks set to be out of action for the next four to six weeks.

At last though, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for Meehan, who has been dogged by injury for the past 14 months. He suffered a serious ankle injury in the championship defeat to Sligo last July in Markievicz Park and since then has done everything possible to get back playing, but a combination of ankle and knee problems has meant that he has barely kicked a ball since.

However over the past week, the Caltra man has managed to put in some football time on the pitch without any repercussions so he could feature on the bench in Castlebar but he definitely won’t be starting. His return to action will be warmly welcomed by football fans not only in Galway but all over the country.

Galway had an encouraging one point win over Cork in Ennis last Sunday and although the All-Ireland champions were missing a half dozen first choice players, it was by all accounts a very positive performance from Galway.

A number of under-21s have been introduced to the panel with Milltown’s Mark Hehir a likely starter on the ‘40’ against Mayo in a forward line also expected to contain Gareth Bradshaw, Cormac Bane, Padraic Joyce, Paul Conroy and Eoin Concannon.

The starting midfield pair will be Finian Hanley and Joe Bergin with goalkeeper Adrian Faherty likely to be fronted by Alan Burke, Colin Forde, Jonathan Duane, Gary O’Donnell, Greg Higgins and Gary Sice, although the team won’t be finalised until early next week.

Milltown’s Diarmuid Blake has also recovered from injury and is back in full training but one of the midfield stars of the All-Ireland under-21 winning team, Thomas Flynn, has been understandably out of the frame for the past few weeks due to Leaving Cert commitments.