Good news on the injury front for 3 Kerry players before Mayo clash

THE NEWS IS positive for Kerry on the injury front as they gear up for Sunday week’s All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo.

Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice confirmed last night that attacker Kevin McCarthy and the experienced Bryan Sheehan, both of whom were not involved in the quarter-final against Galway, are back in the frame.

Kilcummin player McCarthy started at centre-forward in the Munster final success over Cork while St Mary’s player Sheehan has had his season disrupted with injury since the league final win over Dublin in April.

Star forward James O’Donoghue, man-of-the-match in that provincial decider against Cork, had his preparations for the Galway hampered by an injury concern and while he did start against the Tribesmen, he was noticeably quiet and didn’t manage to score from play.

But Fitzmaurice is confident all those knocks will have cleared up before the battle with Stephen Rochford’s side and squad member Denis Daly is the only player who will definitely miss out.

“We’re not too bad injury wise. Now touch wood because the last time we did a press conference I was saying the same thing and we picked up a few knocks afterward so hopefully we’ll get from here to next week okay.

“Denis Daly is the only fella. He had a hamstring injury, he played a club game the weekend of the Galway game trying to come back and he hurt his ankle so he’s out for the medium term really, indefinitely at the moment. Other than that we’re good.”

“Kevin had a quad injury that he’s coming back from at the moment but he should be okay. It was an injury concern.

“He aggravated it the week of the game and that was that for the Galway game. Of course he’ll be in the mix, absolutely if he’s fit.

“Bryan’s fine and (James) is fine.”