GAA:As he continues to mourn the sudden death of his daughter Michaela, Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has expressed his wish that Sunday's Dr McKenna Cup fixture against Fermanagh goes ahead as planned.
Arrangements are being made to repatriate Ms Harte’s body from Mauritius, where she was murdered while on honeymoon earlier this week, with her funeral expected to take place early next week.
It had been thought that if Ms Harte’s body arrived home before the weekend, Tyrone would postpone the match. However, while the Tyrone county board have yet to confirm the fixture, Harte has asked that the fixture in Enniskillen is fulfilled.
“No final decision has been made,” explained Tyrone spokesman Damian Harvey. “But it’s unlikely the board would go against Mickey’s wishes.”
The Tyrone squad will convene tonight for the first time since the tragedy with assistant manager Tony Donnelly taking charge of team affairs. Donnelly will also be in charge for Sunday’s match at Brewster Park.
“Training was pre-planned from last weekend, and we’re still going to go ahead and meet together as a group. We feel that would be important,” Donnelly said yesterday.
“Everybody is individually coping as best they can with these terrible circumstances, but we just feel that the best thing for us is to get together as a group. We could draw strength from one another, and we feel it’s the right thing to get together.”