Tyrone defender Cormac Quinn looks set to miss the opening round of the club championship due to injury.
Quinn has not played a single game for Errigal Ciaran this season as he struggles with a groin problem which required surgery.
The issue has plagued him since the start of the year, ruling him out of most of the inter-county campaign and restricting him to a handful of substitute appearances in the Al-Ireland round robin series and the preliminary quarter-final defeat to Roscommon.
“He came back from the county and then had surgery. He’s making his way back, he’s doing some running work at the minute,” said manager Enda McGinley.
“The first round is probably going to be too soon for him but we’ll see. He recovered really well from a similar injury, well a slightly different injury but a similar circumstance last year, but certainly if he’s available at all he’d be very useful to have.”
Errigal, who won the O’Neill Cup in 2022, and lost last year’s final to Trillick, face Pomeroy in the first round early next month.
The Dunmoyle side is close to sealing a place in the Division One semi-finals ahead of this weekend’s final round of league games, but McGinley has been careful in the management of niggling injuries for key players in recent weeks, which has meant restricted game time for some.
Darragh Canavan has been used sparingly in the past couple of weeks, which have seen a hectic fixtures schedule featuring two games per week, while another Tyrone player, Joe Oguz, has started to work his way back following a significant absence due to injury.
“I suppose points are secondary, it’s more injuries and that type of thing. We’re three weeks out from playing Pomeroy in the championship and that’s the focus at the minute,” said the manager.
“We’re probably seven or eight lads down, but we’ve a strong panel thankfully.
“It’s been stretched because there’s reserve championships on at the minute, but it is about managing boys’ game-time, giving them game-time but not too much game-time.
“If anybody has niggles you’re having to be careful because you don’t have time for boys to get a bigger injury and still have them back for championship. I think for all the top teams it’s a tough spell at the minute.”
The league series has been a slow burner for a team that made a shaky start, before finding form in recent weeks as it climbed up the table.
“Again not really a concern, we are where we are. It was shaky but it’s an exceptionally tough league and every team in Tyrone can beat you,” said treble All-Ireland winner McGinley.
“If you’re off it at all you can get into major difficulty and that was to our cost, everybody was training at different levels, you had boys away at various stages, teams tend to have big bounces after defeats.
“In general we’re happy enough with our progress but to repeat myself the eyes at this stage are on championship and on Pomeroy.”
