Kildare have been forced to make several changes for Sunday's National Football League tie with Meath in Navan.
Captain Glen Ryan, goalkeeper Christy Byrne, Brian Lacey, Willie McCreery and John Finn will all miss the game through injury. Ivan Keatley will make his competitive debut at right half back, and just three players will start in the positions in which they began against Monaghan. They have left two positions vacant, at centre forward and centre back.
For Meath, Enda McManus returns to play his first game in the league at the expense of Paddy Reynolds in the half back line. Nigel Nestor is available again, having served a four-week suspension. His return to midfield is facilitated by the switch of Nigel Crawford to full forward, where he displaces Fergus McMahon.
Cavan manager Val Andrews has also been forced by a spate of injuries to leave three vacancies on the team to face Wexford in Breffni Park on Sunday. Regular names such as Dermot McCabe, Ronan Carolan, Fintan Cahill, Larry Reilly, Michael Graham and Patrick Shiels have all been waylaid in recent weeks while Cathal Collins is concentrating on his final medical examinations.
Peter O'Reilly is making steady progress after his knee operation while Fergus O'Reilly, Pierce McKenna and Raymond Galligan are approachingfull fitness. Andrews will hold a fitness test on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
For the vital Division One game against All-Ireland champions Galway in Ballinasloe, Offaly's injury problems have reached crisis proportion. So much so that when the selectors met last night following training, they were unable to finalise a line-out and were forced to leave vacancies at full-back and midfield. Gone from the side which defeated Leitrim last Sunday are James Brady, Sean Grennan, Donie Ryan and Willie Reynolds, and in addition to the two vacancies there are recalls for James Stewart and David Connolly. In hurling, Willie O'Connor makes his first appearance in a Kilkenny shirt since the All-Ireland final, albeit on the substitutes' bench, Philip Larkin has been named as corner back instead of last year's captain Tom Hickey, while Andy Comerford comes in at midfield instead of Dermot Maher in an eagerly anticipated game against Tipperary at Nowlan Park.
OFFALY: (SF v Galway) P Kelly; C Daly, AN Other, D Foley; J Kenny, F Cullen, T Coffey; AN Other, C McManus; P Brady, B O'Brien, J Stewart; D Connolly, M Daly, V Claffey.
MAYO (SF v Down) P Burke, K Mortimer, K Cahill, P Holmes, F Costello, A Roche, A Higgins, P Fallon, J Nallen, C McManaman, M Sheridan, J Casey, K McDonald, J Horan, D Nestor.
KILDARE (SF v Meath): E Murphy; A Rainbow, R Quinn, K Doyle; I Keatley, AN Other, D Maher; N Buckley, D Earley; E McCormack, K O'Dwyer, P McCormack; D Kerrigan, A N Other, C Sheridan. MEATH: (SF v Kildare): C Sullivan; M O'Reilly, D Fay, C Murphy; D Curtis, H Traynor, E McManus; J McGuinness, N Nestor; R Kealy, A N Other, G Geraghty; R Magee, N Crawford, O Murphy. CAVAN: (SF v Wexford): B McCormack; A N Other, T Farrelly, G Sheridan; A Forde, B Morris, R Rogers; J Coffey, P Smith; A N Other, J Crowe, R Cunnngham; J Reilly, Ro Carolan, A N Other.
KILKENNY (SH v Tipperary): J MCCaggy; J Butler, J Costelloe, P Larkin; M Kavanagh, E Kennedy, P Barry, T Murphy; A Comerfor, DJ Carey; J Hoyne, B McEvoy; K O'Shea, H Shefflin, C Carter.
TYRONE: (SF v Armagh) F McConnell, P Devlin, C Lawn, P McGurk, C Gourley, S McCallan, C Holmes, D McElroy, Pascal Canavan, G Cavlan, E Gormley, C Loughran, A Cush, M McGleenan, Peter Canavan. DONEGAL: (SF v Leitrim) - T Blake, D Diver, E Reddin, N McGinley, O Reid, N Hegarty, N McCready, J McGuinness, J Ruane, B Roper, A Sweeney, B Ward, J Duffy, T Boyle, B Devenney.
