*Seán McAllister. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Football Championship coverage brought to you in association with Martin Daly Autos
BOTH EMMET McMahon and Seán McAllister are on their mend with their respective injuries but won’t be available for selection for Clare’s senior footballers this weekend.
Paul Madden’s side line out in the Tailteann Cup for the very first time and welcome Offaly to Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg this Saturday at 16:00.
Once again, Clare will be far from full strength with a high amount of injuries keeping key players sidelined.
Offaly have yet to win a competitive game this year, losing all seven games in Division 2 of the Allianz National Football League resulting in their immediate relegation and setting up a clash with Clare in the third tier next year. They followed this up with an early exit in the Leinster SFC, losing to Laois 3-10 0-12 in the preliminary round of the province.
Madden told The Clare Echo that Offaly are one of the strongest sides that Clare could have been paired against. “Straight away it was obvious we were pitted against one of the highest ranking teams in the competition. It will be a tough task, they didn’t have it easy in the league and they had a tough run but they were hampered with injury”.
Since losing by eight points to Kerry in the Munster semi-final, Clare returned to training, first with a group session at Lahinch before making their way to pitch sessions and fine tuning for Offaly.
Ennis native Paul said, “The mood has been quite good, we knew we had an opportunity against Kerry and we didn’t take it but we can’t have any qualms with the result, we did lots of positive things in that game that we can take forward in this competition. We have said from the beginning of the year we were going to be as competitive as could be whatever the competition whether it was the McGrath Cup, National Football League, Munster championship, All-Ireland series or Tailteann Cup. We are in a new competition and that brings a new opportunity, the games are coming thick and fast so we’re not getting too much time to think”.
Alongside his management team of Ger Quinlan, Shane Daniels and Kieran Murphy, Madden has never been able to pick from a fully fit squad in 2026. As first reported by The Clare Echo, Eoin Cleary, Darragh Bohannon, Stephen Ryan and Dermot Coughlan are ruled out for Saturday. The trio of Colm Walsh O’Loghlen, James Curran and James Killeen will miss the entire season with ACL injuries while Darragh Burns (back) is also unlikely to wear the saffron and blue in 2026.
Nearing a return to action is Emmet McMahon who sustained an ACL injury last July when playing for his club Kildysart in a challenge match. “He’s making great progress, he suffered an ACL rupture which did require surgery so he has to hit all his markers before returning to training and meeting the return to play protocol,” Madden stated. “He is making great progress and is in great shape”. The secondary school teacher partook in the warm-up for the Munster semi-final against Kerry and is edging closer to a return.
From the neighbouring Clondegad club, Seán McAllister is also out of the equation for Saturday’. He suffered an AC injury to his shoulder which has left his arm in a sling and ruled him out of the Kerry game. “He picked it up at training, he picked up a knock in one of our internal games which are good, hard, physical encounters. He is recovering but will not be back for this weekend”.
Midfield with last year’s Clare U20s, Seán has struggled with injury this season which has stopped him from clocking up minutes in the county colours. He was introduced for the final quarter of Clare’s last outing of the NFL and had a shot boom off the crossbar in the dying stages of the one point loss to Sligo.
With Darragh Bohannon sidelined, McAllister’s loss as an option in the middle third is felt.
