RORY GALLAGHER SAYS that Frank McGlynn and Martin McElhinney will be fit to face Monaghan in Saturday’s Ulster SFC semi-final in Cavan.
The Donegal duo came off injured during the quarter-final win over Fermanagh, but Gallagher is confident of including them from the off against Monaghan.
McGlynn is troubled by a hamstring complaint while McElhinney was forced to leave the action after sustaining a back injury.
“Thankfully neither injury is too severe,” Gallagher said.
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“We’d expect them both to be good to go. At this stage, in a 13-day turnaround, training isn’t actually the most important thing.
“It’s such a quick turnaround. No matter what we do in between we’re not going to get any fitter or sharper.
“Frank had a slight twinge where he felt his hamstring and just had to be careful. At that stage of the game we felt we were very much in control.
“Martin had a small spasm in the back. Again, it was just about being careful. The main thing is having them right for the weekend and we’re confident they will be.”
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Karl Lacey sat out the Fermanagh game and didn’t even tog, but Gallagher says that the former Footballer of the Year could start on Saturday in Breffni Park.
The Donegal manager said: “We could have played him on the day but we felt that one way or the other we would be on the 25th of June and we felt that it was not worth the risk at that point in time of the season.
“He just has a niggly wee calf injury and had it been the be all and end all that we were not to have another game we would have played him.
“We expect him to be fine this week. We minded him in the week gone by but he is going to train with us this week and we will see how he reacts but we expect that the injury has fully cleared up.”
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The situation surrounding midfielder Neil Gallagher is not so positive, however.
The Glenswilly man has not played for club or county since being withdrawn at half-time in the Allianz Football League game against Roscommon in March.
Gallagher has been beset by back and achillies issues since, but his manager said: “Neil has been training away and building up over the last number of weeks. We’ll look at him again this week and see how he goes. He’s trained really well since about 10 days before the Fermanagh game.
“But the reality is that Neil hasn’t played a lot of football recently. He’s had a back issue and an Achilles complaint. He’s over them and it’s about him continuing to train well now and us monitoring him between now and next weekend.”
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