SAFFRON manager Liam Bradley is not expecting Tony Scullion to be available for antrim's Championship clash against fermanagh at Brewster Park on June 1.
In his first interview since he axed CJ McGourty from the senior squad, Bradley confirmed that Scullion is struggling to recover from a hamstring injury. Although antrim do not play fermanagh for two-and-a-half weeks, the antrim boss is not optimistic about Scullion's chances of making the starting line-up.
"The only player who is injured at the moment is Tony Scullion. He got a bad hamstring injury about three weeks ago," he said.
"It looks as if time is going to beat him for this game. We still have a couple of weeks, but he hasn't taken part in full training yet. I would say time is against him."
The antrim manager refused to be drawn on his decision to jettison top scorer CJ McGourty.
"I am not going down that road. I am not going to make any comment on it," he said.
McGourty's removal from the panel led to the departure of St Gall's duo Michael Pollock and Chris Kerr. Annoyed that Bradley had got ride of their clubmate, the pair left the panel in protest.
Pollock, a former Gort na Mona player who transferred to the Milltown club, wasn't a regular starter, but Kerr was the first-choice goalkeeper for the Saffrons.
However, not all of the St Gall's players on the county panel joined the exodus. When Kevin Niblock signed a contract with Cliftonville, Bradley tried to accommodate him. Niblock was allowed to train once a week and he remained part of the squad. Now that Cliftonville's season is over, Bradley confirmed that niblock has recovered from an ankle injury and is back in full training.
"Kevin has been training with us for the past three weeks. He has played the last three league games for his club,' he said.
"We are just delighted to have him back. He is injury-free at the minute and long may it last."
Despite the unrest which took place at the end of the national League, Bradley claimed the mood in the Antrim camp was extremely positive.
"In all the years I have been with Antrim, our training in the last four-to-five weeks has never been better," he said.
"We have a very united squad. We have 35 fellas who really want to play for antrim. They want to play for the jersey. Things couldn't be going better at the minute."
While the spirit in the Saffron camp might be upbeat, Bradley still faces a major challenge. Widely tipped to gain promotion from Division four, antrim managed only two victories in the national League. a porous defence was antrim's obvious shortcoming. Wicklow (3-9), Carlow (3-15) and Tipperary (3-20) smashed three goals apiece against them.
Having analysed his team's performances, Bradley said he was now addressing antrim's major failing.
"We went down to Tipperary and scored 1-17 and lost. That tells you everything you need to know. The problem was we were conceding far too much.
"In particular, we conceded far too many goals, but that is something we have working on over the last number of weeks." Although fermanagh have also lost the services of their main marksman, Seamus Quigley, Bradley noted that the bookmakers still fancy the Ernemen to come out on top at Brewster Park.
"at the end of the day, fermanagh are playing a division above us. They were playing in Division Three and we were playing in Division four," he said.
"We were mid-table Division four and they were hunting for promotion out of Division Three.
"The bookies have us at 66/1 to win the Ulster Championship. Fermanagh are 33/1. We know where we are at."