Darach O’Connor has been named in the Donegal starting XV for the first time since the 2014 All-Ireland final ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with Dublin in Ballybofey.
by Chris McNulty, Donegal Sport Hub
O’Connor had only fleeting appearances in 2015 before he sustained a rupture of his anterior cruciate ligament that autumn.
The Buncrana man’s last start in Donegal’s colours was the 2014 All-Ireland SFC final loss to Kerry at Croke Park.
After two substitute appearances against Kerry and Roscommon, O’Connor has been selected for duty for tomorrow’s League encounter with Dublin.
“He missed two years of full training,” Rory Gallager said of O’Connor.
“He has worked exceptionally hard to get himself physically fit to play at this level. We see some good moments of that.
“He’s still only 60 or 70 percent, but he’s working hard at it. Over the next few weeks, we’ll get a good few minutes into him.”
O’Connor takes the place of the injured Patrick McBrearty, while Frank McGlynn and Martin McElhinney have not been risked as Donegal welcome the defending League and All-Ireland champions to Ballybofey.
Gallagher said: “It’s important to build on our display. Every day is different. Every week in the League, teams have different motivations.
“We see this as another building block. We know it will take a hell of a lot of improvement to beat Dublin.”
A Donegal team including 2012 All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Paul Durcan was tweeted earlier, but this proved to be untrue and, the Donegal GAA Twitter account has clarified, due to a production error Durcan’s name will appear in tomorrow’s programme.
Donegal (Allianz League v Dublin): Mark Anthony McGinley; Paddy McGrath, Neil McGee, Eoghan Ban Gallagher; Ryan McHugh, Caolan Ward, Paul Brennan; Jason McGee, Ciaran Thompson; Micheál Carroll, Martin O’Reilly, Eoin McHugh; Darach O’Connor, Michael Murphy, Jamie Brennan.
Tags:Donegal team to face Dublin in the Allianz League . Apologies tomorrow's programme will read Paul Durcan as no 1 pic.twitter.com/NgfYXP4EgB
— Official Donegal GAA (@officialdonegal) February 25, 2017
