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Monaghan's Conor McManus & Barry McGinn fit for Down clash

Conor McManus (above) and Barry McGinn (below) will both be available for Monaghan's Ulster Championship clash with Down  
Conor McManus (above) and Barry McGinn (below) will both be available for Monaghan's Ulster Championship clash with Down   Conor McManus (above) and Barry McGinn (below) will both be available for Monaghan's Ulster Championship clash with Down  

Ulster Senior Football Championship

MONAGHAN forward pair Conor McManus and Barry McGinn have shaken off knocks to be declared fit for the county’s Ulster Championship opener against Down on June 5.

Sharpshooter McManus was limping towards the end of Clontibret’s dramatic Monaghan championship defeat to Ballybay on May 15, while McGinn - one of the stars of the county’s U21 Ulster title success - picked up a shoulder injury in a league game for Doohamlet and played no part in his club's championship defeat to defending champions Scotstown. However, a Farney spokesman said both have since returned to training and will be available for the clash with the Mourne men.

Meanwhile, Monaghan boss Malachy O’Rourke has insisted veterans Paul Finlay and Dick Clerkin still have a major part to play for the county as they bid to hold on to the Anglo-Celt Cup. Finlay was inspirational for Ballybay in that victory over Clontibret, while Clerkin is on the road to recovery after injuries ruled him out of the National League.

And O’Rourke believes both 30 somethings have plenty to offer: “There’s no doubt they do,” he said.

“Paul wasn’t in the panel [for the league], he only came back in. We did that deliberately because we want him coming back in fresh this year. We felt maybe, in the last couple of years, he had played a lot of league football and maybe wasn’t as fresh later in the year, so we want to give him the best possible chance of being fresh at the right time of year. Dick was injured throughout the whole league, recovering from an ankle injury and then he damaged an eye socket during a collision in training, but the boys are training hard.”

McGinn is not the only member of that Ulster title-winning U21 team to have made the step up to the senior panel, with Ryan McAnespie and Conor McCarthy also regular squad members. They have been joined by goalkeeper Conor Forde and centre-back James Mealiff and O’Rourke says the likes of Finlay and Clerkin remain a shining example to the newer additions to the Farney set-up.

He said: “They still have the hunger for it, they’re great fellas to have around because they’re a great example to the younger lads coming through to see the right attitude, the way you prepare as a county player, the way you have to go about things.

“The boys are in good shape, they want to play - that’s what they’re there for and I’m sure they’ll have a role to play before the end of the year. There’s plenty of time for them to force themselves into the reckoning [for the Down game].”

On the possibility of further new recruits from the U21 team, the Farney boss added: “We’ve five on the panel at the minute and we’ll assess it again and see if we need to add anyone else to it and, certainly, there would be a number of U21s who would have a strong possibility of coming into it. It’s great, the U21 success was a great fillip for the entire county and it’s just about harnessing everybody together and making sure we aren’t getting too carried away and looking too far ahead.

“If you do that, something can trip you up.”