KARL Lacey and Eamon McGee could both feature for Donegal in Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Mayo at Croke Park.
Lacey missed Saturday’s qualifier win over Galway because of the knee injury that cut short his involvement in last month’s Ulster final while McGee was withdraw at half-time having picked up an ankle injury.
However, Rory Gallagher, the Donegal manager, remains optimistic on the prospects of the duo (pictured above) facing Mayo.
Lacey could return to training on Wednesday night.
While Gallagher rates the Donegal town man’s chances as ’50-50’, there is growing hope that the 2012 Footballer of the Year will be given the green light by the squad’s medical team.
“It is a race against time but we would be a lot more optimistic than this time last week,” Gallagher said.
“We are going to monitor it day by day.
“It was a two-to-five-week injury and this is heading for three now. He’s done a massive amount of rehab and he did a bit of light running on Sunday. He’s at the mercy of the medical team, but he won’t be risked unless he’s right.
“We’ll allow Karl right up until Friday. We’d hope that he’ll take part on Wednesday, but the chances are improving by the day.”
McGee picked up a similar injury in the Ulster quarter-final against Armagh and the Gaoth Dobhair man is very much in the frame to go into combat with Aidan O’Shea this weekend.
Gallagher said: “Eamon rolled his ankle but it has not swollen up.
“It is the same ankle he rolled against Armagh. He was back seven to 10 days training but the fact that it has not swollen would suggest he will be back in a few days.”
The Donegal boss confirmed the additions of Eoghan ‘Ban’ Gallagher (Killybegs) and Ciaran Thompson (Naomh Conaill) to his panel, while Darach O’Connor – sidelined at the weekend because of a knee problem – is expected to be in the match day 26 this week.
Martin McElhinney didn’t start against Galway, but is expected to make his return to the first XV this week after making a big impact off the bench against Galway.
McElhinney didn’t train since the Ulster final because of a knee problem, but took part against Galway and subsequently trained on Sunday and Monday.
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