Mayo manager James Horan has no fresh injury worries so far in the build up to Sunday week’s All Ireland semi-final against Dublin. Speaking to the media this week in the lead into the game the Ballintubber club man said: “No, not outside Andy [Moran], we’re in pretty good form, and training well. Ronan McGarrity has a sore calf muscle. But outside that we’re in good shape.”
Filling the hole left by the Mayo captain will be one of the big talking points ahead of the game in nine days time, but Horan is confident that the players are there to come in and step up to the plate come Sunday week. “As we said before, Andy will be a huge loss but we're very lucky, we've an extremely strong panel and we saw that when Andy got injured in the game when the subs that came on actually increased the tempo in the game and we kicked on again, which was a good sign for me. And that's been the way in training since, and we've four or five guys who have shown really well since and we’re happy with the way things have gone and we've had a positive bounce from the Andy injury.”
The loss of Moran saw the issue of Conor Mortimer leaving the panel earlier this year raise its head again, but Horan quickly brushed over the issue, saying: “If he was here he could have been playing, but if Jinking Joe (Corcoran ) was here he could be playing too, you know. To be honest with you it's irrelevant at this stage. Andy will be a loss, no doubt, he's a leader but he's still the captain of our team and will drive us on from the side.”
Mayo have gone through this year’s championship campaign by seeing off Leitrim with ease, before struggling past Sligo in the Connacht final and blitzing Down in their last outing. Stepping onto the field against the defending All Ireland champions is something that will be a totally different test and is something that Horan is aware of. “If you look at the side that won the All Ireland last year, that game plan was based on work rate and intensity and movement all over the field. They outran and outworked teams last year, so we have to assume that's going to be the case on Sunday week, so it's going to be a huge step up for us, but one we are confident we can meet.”
