Michael Donnellan's withdrawal from next month's International Rules series was expected, according to Ireland selector Martin Carney. The Galway player has been troubled by injury since the outgoing champions' defeat by Kerry in last month's All-Ireland quarter-final.

"Michael was never really with us," according to Carney. "He did come on for his club Dunmore and score a point recently but he's been seeing Gerry McEntee (Meath All-Ireland medallist and surgeon) about a pelvic injury, which may require surgery.

"I haven't been talking to him at all but I know that Michael was talking to John O'Keeffe (Ireland manager) and told him that he wasn't in a position to attend training because of the injury."

Donnellan isn't the only midfielder to make himself unavailable, as Dublin's Ciarán Whelan had earlier indicated that he would prefer not to be involved this year.

For the past six weeks Ireland's provisional panel has been training in Portmarnock in north county Dublin. All players whom O'Keeffe has in mind have been training, with the exception of the Kerry and Armagh footballers.

It is expected that the full panel will be announced next week. One other complication on the horizon for Ireland is the All-Ireland under-21 final between Dublin and Galway, which takes place only a week before the first test on October 13th.

This has particular significance for Dublin senior goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton who is an under-21 and also believed to be in with a good chance of the Ireland jersey but whose attendance at training in Portmarnock may be affected by under-21 commitments.

Mayo's Peter Burke and Kildare's Enda Murphy are the other goalkeepers in training.