All-Ireland qualifiers: At the end of a deeply disappointing weekend, Tyrone manager Mickey Harte had some relief yesterday with the news that All Star Seán Cavanagh would be fit to play in the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers next month.
Cavanagh was knocked unconscious after a collision with Derry's Joe Diver and was stretchered off five minutes from the end of the Ulster championship first round in Omagh. But it has emerged he didn't pick up any further physical injury.
Tyrone went into the match missing six of their All-Ireland team from last September, all injured apart from the retired Peter Canavan.
As a result of their unexpected defeat, Harte's team are now heading for the qualifier series but hopes are high that the invalid list will ease in the three weeks between now and then.
Stephen O'Neill, Brian McGuigan, Gerard Cavlan and Mickey McGee were all ruled out of the weekend's match.
Whereas McGuigan won't play again this season because of a badly broken leg, the rest are expected to be back in action shortly.
Joe McMahon and Martin Penrose were unable to start last Sunday but both came in as second-half substitutes, and came through without aggravating their injuries.
Harte admitted he went into last Sunday's tie under a cloud of uncertainty as to how his depleted side would perform.
"You never know until you play, but you have expectations and you prepare the team as best you can, the players prepare as well as they can. They expect to win these games - if they didn't expect to win there would be no point in going out. But then a game takes on a life of its own, and things happen that you cannot legislate for, and you have to live with that."
The draw for the football qualifier series will be made next weekend at the conclusion of the provincial first-round series. It will be televised live from Páirc Uí Chaoimh after the Munster hurling semi-final between Tipperary and Waterford.
The hurling qualifiers will be drawn the following weekend, probably from Nowlan Park after the Offaly-Wexford Leinster hurling semi-final.
Tyrone's early exit might have come as a surprise but it represented the continuation of a strong trend in the province that has seen All-Ireland champions falling at the first hurdle in Ulster on several occasions. Of the last five All-Ireland winners from the north, four have failed to survive the first round in Ulster the following year.
The only exception was Tyrone two years ago and they were defeated by Donegal a round later in the provincial semi-final.
As well as Tyrone this year the record shows that Armagh were beaten by Monaghan in 2003, Down by Donegal in 1995 and the previous year at Celtic Park, Derry in what came to be regarded as the best match of the decade, the home side, lost to Down.
This weekend's final Ulster first-round match between Donegal and Down in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey, will be all-ticket. Tickets can be collected by clubs in Jackson's Hotel in Ballybofey tomorrow evening at 8.30 pm.
Mayo's All-Ireland under-21 football winning captain and senior player Keith Higgins was named as the inaugural Cadbury Hero of the Future, following an awards ceremony held in the Westin Hotel, in Dublin at the weekend. Higgins, from Ballyhaunis, who also hurls with the county, was presented with the award by Nickey Brennan, GAA president.
