Fitzy heads Corofin’s walking wounded

COROFIN will face into Sunday’s Connacht Club provincial semi-final clash against Castlebar Mitchels at Tuam Stadium (2.0) slightly on the backfoot with injury woes ruling out three key players for what promises to be a very tight contest.

Captain Kieran Fitzgerald has been ruled out of the match with a nagging groin injury that he suffered during the county final success over Corofin, and his loss is certainly a massive one for the Galway champions.

An All-Star and All-Ireland winner in 2001, Fitzgerald – as captain and full back – has been a driving force of the team and will be sorely missed at the heart of the Corofin defence.

More bad news for Corofin is that both Gary Delaney and Daithi Burke have also been forced out of the Castlebar match following injuries they suffered in the county final success over Salthill last month.

Gary Delaney has a dislocated collar bone while Daithi Burke suffered a broken foot in that match, although he did play on for most of the match despite the injury.

Corofin’s other major doubt is defender Michael Comer who has knee ligament trouble but he is given a 50-50 chance of being okay for this tie and will face a late fitness test on Sunday morning.

One piece of good news for the Galway champions is that Alan O’Donovan is back in contention after being ruled out of their county final win following a straight red card that he received in the semi-final success over Milltown. Full preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune.