*Manus Doherty. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
DEFENDERS CILLIAN BRENNAN and Manus Doherty are expected to be passed fit to line out for Clare’s senior footballers in Sunday’s Munster football final.
Full-back Brennan who has developed into one of the most important assets on the Clare team, went off injured at half-time in the three point semi-final win over Limerick a fortnight ago.
He has struggled with what is understood to be a hip injury but is to be given the go ahead of facing off with the greatest player in the game at present, David Clifford. The Clondegad clubman made his inter-county senior championship debut in 2018 against Limerick, having joined the panel fresh from Clare’s Division 3 League success in 2016.
Éire Óg’s Manus Doherty who has also been restricted in his training since the semi-final is also on course to be included in the full-back line where they will join Cillian Rouine. Doherty has proven to be a valuable addition to the county side since making his championship debut last season, his showing at club level has been to the fore with the Ennis club managed by Paul Madden winning back to back county titles.
Should either of the pair suffer a setback prior to throw-in, Manus’ clubmate Ronan Lanigan is tipped to get the nod in the corner while Ciaran Russell could be deployed from wing back to the number three spot if required.
Kilfenora’s Cian O’Dea continues to recover from a knee injury and is not believed to be in contention for a seventy minute role in the Munster final. Should the Games Development Officer with Éire Óg be available for an appearance off the bench, his presence will give a lift to both Clare supporters and players.
Brennan, Doherty and O’Dea will continue to have their fitness monitored prior to Sunday’s game which will be refereed by Mayo’s Jerome Henry.
Meanwhile, favourites Kerry have no major injuries ahead of the showdown, manager Jack O’Connor confirmed. “We’re still training pretty hard at the minute, there’s a few twinges here and there, some muscle injuries so we won’t know until Thursday if they are cleared up or not, we’re not too bad and we have no significant injuries”.
Speaking to Radio Kerry, the four-time All-Ireland SFC winning manager said, “Our fellas are very driven, they are a driven and focused group, they want to keep improving, they know they will get a good test from Clare who will be very well set up defensively, it will be a good test for our fellas to break these lads down and make sure we’re not conceding too much on the counter attack, our fellas are looking forward to that challenge more than anything else, it would be great to win it and get the first home game in the group stage”.
O’Connor praised his Clare counterpart Colm Collins as “an amazing manager, he has got an awful lot out of that group, that is the dream of all of us to get the maximum out of the group we have, he is certainly getting it out of the Clare lads and they are a very unified bunch, most people were feeling Cork had improved this year and results in the league would have suggested that but Clare turned them over, there is no way in the world we are underestimating the challenge Clare will bring and we will prepare accordingly”.
