As the countdown to Fermanagh’s championship clash with Antrim begins in earnest Pete McGrath has a number of injury concerns but believes that they “should be cleared up” for the visit of the Saffrons on May 15.
Full back Che Cullen and midfielder and captain Eoin Donnelly both picked up injuries in the last round of club league fixtures but the Rostrevor man fully expects both to be fit for selection.
“Che damaged his thumb and we are waiting on the final confirmation but the early indication is that there is a wee crack at the top of the thumb and if that is the case it would not be too bad, but we are not certain at the moment,” McGrath explained before going on to elaborate on the prognosis of his captain;
“Eoin tweaked his hamstring but Eoin is very quick healer and he is confident of getting some type of training in this week. Obviously we are concerned but we think that Eoin, and indeed Che will be OK.”
The county team will have 16 days free from club games before they face Antrim in the championship and McGrath conceded that this was key for the preparation of the squad;
“It is a clear run for us now and we have that complete oversight and control over what the players are doing in terms of training and so on. So if anything happens on site in terms of tweaks we can get right on them. We still have work to do before the Antrim game but it will be controlled and with that level of control hopefully we won’t see any injuries.”
In terms of preparation Fermanagh faced Derry in a friendly game recently with the Oakleaf men winning the game quite comfortably.
“We wanted to look at players who didn’t have a lot of opportunity for game time in the league and we looked at 29 players that night. Derry had what looked like a very strong team and kept them on for much of the game but we got out of the game what we wanted to get out of it. We are happy with what we have seen in the league and we wanted to see what other options we had,” said McGrath.
Fermanagh will host Antrim for the third successive year in the Ulster Championship while they also played them in the All Ireland qualifiers last season. Antrim won in 2014 with Pete McGrath’s men coming out on top on both occasions last season;
“It is about getting the focus right at this point and I think to be fair the players are in a good place right now. We know what type of a threat Antrim will bring but the game is about us right now and how we perform and I think if our performance is all that it can be on a given day then we will have enough but we cannot take Antrim for granted,” the Down native explained.
The Ulster championship is viewed by many as the most competitive of the four championships with eight of the nine counties competing in the top two divisions in the league this season, and McGrath sees no reason why Fermanagh should not be right in the mix of things when it comes to potential winners of the Anglo Celt trophy;
“I would certainly put Fermanagh up there with any other team who has aspirations of winning the Ulster championship. I pose this question to the players all the time, ‘Why would they not think that they could win it?’. Their performances and their capabilities give them the right to think very optimistically, very positively and most importantly very realistically about what they can achieve.”
First up is the visit of Antrim to Brewster Park. A potential banana skin no doubt but judging by McGrath the squad will be ready to produce their best come May 15.