Cork's Miskella gets first start in championship

GAA: Cork football manager Billy Morgan has made two changes from the Munster final defeat to Kerry for Sunday's second ever…

GAA:Cork football manager Billy Morgan has made two changes from the Munster final defeat to Kerry for Sunday's second ever championship meeting between Cork and Louth (the first instalment was the 1957 All-Ireland final, which Louth won 1-9 to 1-7. It was the Wee County's third and most recent All-Ireland title).

Wing back Noel O'Leary is serving a four-week suspension arising from an incident with Paul Galvin in the Munster final, so John Miskella gets his first championship start of the season after featuring as a substitute against Tipperary and Kerry.

Conor McCarthy has regained the right-half-forward berth ahead of the under-21 forward Fintan Goold.

Goalkeeper Pat O'Shea retains his place despite Alan Quirke's recovery from a shoulder injury.

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When introduced in the provincial decider, Miskella and McCarthy played significant roles in Cork's second-half revival.

RTÉ's live football qualifier on Saturday afternoon is Meath v Galway (throw-in 4pm) but considering Louth v Cork is also at O'Moore Park, Portlaoise, they may also broadcast that live.

Meath are awaiting injury updates on Brian Farrell and Eoin Harrington, while a change is expected at midfield.

A team was selected last night but probably won't be announced until tomorrow. It has been confirmed that Joe Sheridan will not return to the panel ahead of the weekend.

In hurling, several changes are expected on the Wexford team to play Tipperary this Sunday at Croke Park in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Wexford have not played since the 2-24 to 1-12 defeat in the provincial final to Kilkenny, which leaves them somewhat undercooked, with just two championship games, in comparison to Tipperary's six outings.

"Yes, there will be a few changes," confirmed the Wexford manager, John Meyler.

"The Leinster final was unacceptable. We need a performance of some substance on Saturday. We'll be trying to replicate the standard we produced away to Clare and against Galway in the league."

While refusing to concede a psychological barrier existed when Wexford players come up against Kilkenny, Meyler did say, "But we're not playing Kilkenny this weekend.

"We are the only team to have played them twice this year. They exposed cracks in our team in the league semi-final and Leinster final.

"We thought these were papered over but they were exposed again in the Leinster final.

"Now there are eight teams left in a new tournament: a clean slate. Our training has gone well in recent weeks. Whether that is enough we won't know until Sunday."

Kevin Kavanagh and Stephen Doyle are expected to miss out. Kavanagh has been plagued all season by a groin injury that required surgery. Ominously, he failed to complete last Sunday's training session.

As for Doyle, a lack of match sharpness may see him confined to the bench.

Nigel Higgins was stripped of the team captaincy and removed from the panel recently after arriving late at training. Veteran goalkeeper Damien Fitzhenry has taken over the role.

The winners of Wexford and Tipperary play either Kilkenny or Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final on August 5th.

Eugene Cloonan is expected to return to the Galway line-up ahead of Sunday's meeting with Kilkenny, a repeat of the epic 2005 All-Ireland semi-final, but Derek Hardiman is unlikely to feature after suffering a suspected concussion against Antrim last weekend.

CORK(SFC v Louth): P O'Shea; M Shields, G Canty, K O'Connor; J Miskella, G Spillane, A Lynch; D Kavanagh, N Murphy; C McCarthy, P O'Neill, K McMahon; J Masters, M Cussen, D O'Connor.

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey is The Irish Times' Soccer Correspondent