DERRY will have to do without former Allstar defender Gareth McKinless for at least another League round - and the Ballinderry captain may be ruled out for a longer term.
Oak Leaf football manager Paddy Tally could not shed any light on the extent of the 30-year-old’s knee injury, but McKinless’s club boss Jarlath Bell called him “absolutely heroic” for playing in Sunday’s All-Ireland Intermediate Club Football final.
It’s unlikely that Tally would have called up even a fully fit McKinless for this weekend’s visit from Kerry given the devastating nature of their defeat to Crossmolina, but the heavy strapping on the player’s left leg looked very concerning.
“I saw Gareth wearing a knee bandage,” said Tally. “I’m sure Gareth will take time after what was a very sore defeat for Ballinderry, they’ll be devastated about the way in which they lost the match – and losing an All-Ireland final is tough for any player. Breathing space and time is the key for those lads at the moment.”
Derry are already stretched defensively and Brendan Rogers took the number six spot on Saturday evening against Tyrone in the continued injury-enforced absence of other first choice Derry defenders, Conor McCloskey and Padraig McGrogan.
The versatile Rogers performed well, as ever, and his place in midfield went to Anton Tohill, son of the legendary Anthony, with the Swatragh lad alongside captain Conor Glass.
One blessing for the Oak Leafers is that the Kingdom themselves seem set to be without their attacking talisman David Clifford, and perhaps his brother Paudie too, among others, with their boss Jack O’Connor having said that they would sit out their scheduled opener at home to Donegal.
Storm Eowyn forced that match’s postponement but O’Connor did say that David would miss “the first couple of games” and that at most there would be six players lining out who had started the All-Ireland semi-final loss to eventual champions Armagh.
Both sides will therefore be seeking to get their first point or two on the board at Celtic Park this Sunday (12.30pm), with Derry being under more pressure after their opening defeat away to neighbours Tyrone.
Tally will be renewing acquaintances with Kerry after coaching them for the past three seasons, including helping them to the 2022 All-Ireland SFC title.
His departure to take on the Derry job came suddenly, having agreed to stay on for a fourth year with the Kingdom, but he remains on good terms with O’Connor, commenting:
“It was a difficult decision to leave Kerry, surely. I had three great years and I was content to stay on for a fourth. But when the opportunity came to get back into management and work with this particular group of players, it was something that I couldn’t turn down.
“Cian [O’Neill] was coming into the head coach role with Kerry, because I had stepped back – the time and the travel was just getting too much. So I wouldn’t have been coaching as much as before.
“Although it was a nice challenge to be working on the performance side of things with the players, the lure of coming back into management was too much.”
Explaining that to O’Connor in mid-November was not tricky, Tally said: “Jack understood that. He knew I was going to move on at some stage. I really hadn’t intended to do three years in Kerry, I’d only intended to do two.
“It wasn’t a hard conversation, Jack’s very pragmatic, he’s sensible. He understood the demands I was under with the travel.
“I was very excited to get working with these Derry footballers: I’ve been coaching against them and I knew how good they are, the young players they have coming through.
“We left on good terms and have been speaking a few times on the phone about various things. So, I’m looking forward to meeting up with him again at the weekend.”
