Stephen Kenny has named his first squad as Ireland manager with Under-21 internationals Jayson Molumby and Adam Idah selected for next week's Nations League games against Bulgaria and Finland. A socially distanced sponsor's showroom in an industrial unit off the M50 certainly won't have been the setting that the 48-year-old envisaged for the most significant squad announcement of his career so far, but Kenny confidently brushed off recent criticism that he lacks the experience of Premier League-level coaching as he set out his vision for this Ireland squad. Among the midfielders in that 23-man squad is Jeff Hendrick, who has signed a four-year deal with Newcastle after leaving Burnley at the end of last season. Tonight Derry City face FK Riteriai in Lithuania, and manager Declan Devine has dismissed suggestions his side should comfortably progress to the next qualifying round of the Europa League against opposition who are struggling domestically. Kick off is at 5pm.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin believes that every effort should be made to accommodate a 2020 intercounty championship beginning at the end of October, no spectators or otherwise, suggesting it would be "a symbol that the country is fighting this virus". In an RTÉ Radio One interview he added: "there's another way of saying this by the way, in taking the decision we did on the crowds, we saved the championships and the leagues. It's a challenge but to me it speaks to us as a nation if we can make sure that we can organise our sports." Dublin midfielder Michael Darragh Macauley is one of the many players desperate for that to happen, and he thinks even if attendances for the championship are capped back at 200 people or there are no spectators at all, there's still ample reason for it to go ahead.
Rory McIlroy has fallen from first to second to third and as of Monday, to fourth, in the world rankings in little over a month – but the defending FedEx Cup champion, has two tournaments left to transform things. This week's BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, and then a favoured hunting ground at East Lake in Atlanta for the Tour Championship. "This is going to sound really bad," he explains, "but I feel like the last few weeks, I've just been going through the motions. I want to get an intensity and some sort of fire, but I just haven't been able to."
Meanwhile Gavin Cummiskey continues the worst sporting moment series as he reflects on the 2011 Rugby World Cup when Johnny Sexton was left out as the golden generation missed the chance of a lifetime. Irish boxer Kellie Harrington is itching to step through the ropes again - but it isn't Tokyo or bust. She says she would consider turning professional providing the money is 'very good'.
