Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath has a couple of major injury concerns ahead of his side’s Ulster SFC Preliminary Round encounter against Monaghan in Clones on May 20.

Ryan Jones and Declan McCusker are both rated very doubtful by the Erne boss while McGrath also states that the game will come too soon for play maker Ruairi Corrigan who missed the entire National League campaign following surgery on a broken collarbone.

“At this stage, Ryan is very, very doubtful for the Monaghan game. It’s a compilation of different things that Ryan has had over this last number of years and he won’t be training for the next couple of weeks to let things settle.

“At this point, it would be a race against time and I think that championship is such a cauldron that the one thing you have to be certain of is the fitness of your players and their ability to play with intensity to a certain level. We will wait and see,” said McGrath.

And he was equally pessimistic about the chances of wing back Declan McCusker making the game against the Farneymen after he sustained a hand injury while playing in a recent league match for his club Ederney.

“He is a big, big doubt as well as he had a hand injury which required a bit of surgery. At this stage you nearly have to be planning without them but these things happen, they happen to all counties including Monaghan who have Darren Hughes injured, and you just have to get on with it and work with the players who are there and have confidence in them and that’s what we are doing,” added McGrath.

On Corrigan, McGrath stated: “Ruairi is definitely out of the Monaghan match but the second championship match, there will be a good possibility that he will be back. The game on May 20 though has just come probably about a fortnight too early for him.”

McGrath’s squad has been further depleted by the withdrawal of James McMahon and Ciaran Corrigan and the Fermanagh manager said he was disappointed with their decision.

“It is disappointing when people leave a squad, particularly in the weeks leading up to the championship and given the finite playing resources that we have, I was disappointed. I chatted to both players at length but they had their minds made up and we just have to push on,” he said.

On a brighter note, there was a return to action for Tomás Corrigan following a calf injury as he came off the bench for his club Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh in their Dublin Championship win over Ballyboden St. Endas last week.

“Tomás played in the second half and he did a fair bit of the training with us at the weekend.

“He missed the last two league games and with four weeks to go now to the championship I would like to think that Tomás will get a really clear run at training and get the work done that is needed to put him in prime condition for a championship game because it is going to be a high intensity game and players have to be up to scratch physically.”

The Fermanagh squad travelled to Dublin for a training camp last weekend and McGrath felt it was beneficial for the management and squad.

“We had four training sessions and a number of meetings and a lot of analysis and that type of thing. The weekend away is important as it gives you that time to do things that in the hurly burly of training during the week you can’t really get at properly.

“It was useful and I think we are in a better place now than we were on Friday going down the road.”

The league campaign ultimately ended in disappointment for Fermanagh with relegation to Division Three on the last day after Derry snatched victory at the death. McGrath admits that was a big blow but stresses that they have now put that behind them.

“It was a big disappointment and I’m not going to try and hide that. The Derry match was one that we controlled for long periods, especially in the second half and we really should have had the game put to bed but we didn’t and we really paid a high price.

“Over the last three years things were improving all the time and the graph was rising through league and championship. You hit then a situation where you a take a drop and dropping down a division for the long term welfare of the team is disappointing.

“However, come this time of the year the league disappears out of peoples minds and we are now looking forward,” he said.

And although McGrath knows that they face a tough assignment against Malachy O’Rourke’s charges in just over three weeks time, he says that they will go to Clones in a positive frame of mind.

“No-one’s disguising the fact that Monaghan is going to be a tough game, any team going to Clones to take on Monaghan would find it the same. It is a challenge which will test you in every way and that’s what we are preparing ourselves for.

“We are under no illusions, but we will be going there in a very positive frame of mind, we are getting a lot of very good work done and if we get the right team out onto the pitch then I am certain that we have the players to push Monaghan a long way down the road,” he added.