Seán Patton of Donegal
Jim McGuinness is hopeful that first choice goalkeeper Seán Patton will be available for Sunday week’s Ulster final clash with Armagh.
Patton was forced off in the win over Derry and, while he took some part in the warm-up before yesterday’s Ulster SFC semi-final extra-time victory over Tyrone, St Naul’s Gavin Mulreany started between the posts.
McGuinness suggested afterwards that Patton could have played and the St Eunan’s man was Donegal’s deputy goalkeeper on the day.
“Pretty much precautionary to be honest with you,” McGuinness said of Patton’s omission.
“He was there or thereabouts and it was one of those ones where if he did play the way he plays and the way he likes to strike the ball that it could have put him in a situation where he could miss so much more. No, he will be fine.”
A question mark remains over Hugh McFadden who is struggling with a back injury.
“He has an issue with a sciatica nerve. I had it myself and it’s the kind of thing that can disappear in minutes if you get the right person to work through it,” he said.
“We have been doing that fairly relentlessly the last few days but it was still pulling on him a wee bit. All going well he should be fine but we are trying to solve that problem.”
Donegal move on to an Ulster final to face an Armagh side they are familiar with, having faced twice in the league, including in the division two final in Croke Park.
“Two weeks will feel like three months for us now in terms of preparation for this one and a lot of our analysis is already done because we have already played them twice,” McGuinness said of Armagh.
“We are not starting from zero. We didn’t play Tyrone this year in the league so we have an opportunity now to quickly get up to speed with Armagh but obviously that works both ways.”
