GERARD O’Kane remains central to Derry’s plans for next season despite suffering an injury setback last weekend.
The experienced Glenullin defender has been ruled out after having to undergo surgery on a thumb injury – he had a pin inserted - on Wednesday following an incident in a club game last weekend.
However, new Oak Leaf manager Damien Barton is optimistic that O’Kane – who opted out of inter-county action last season - will join his squad when he returns to full fitness.
“Gerard isn’t out of the plans,” said Barton.
“He has been involved in competition with his club up to last Sunday so he didn’t have any opportunity to get involved.
“Certainly his experience and enthusiasm as a quality defender is something that we will be looking at. Unfortunately he picked up an injury last Sunday and had an operation yesterday.
“You have to respect experience and you need experience to mingle with the youth – we’re not naïve enough to think that young players, despite their skill levels, can walk into the inter-county environment so Gerard’s experience could prove invaluable as the season goes on.”
O’Kane apart, Derry will be close to full strength for January’s Dr McKenna Cup if, as expected, the contingent from county champions Slaughtneil links up with the squad around Christmas.
“Everybody is on board that we would expect to be on board,” said 1993 All-Ireland winner Barton.
“The Slaughtneil boys have had a very arduous couple of seasons so they have been afforded plenty of time to recover emotionally and physically.
“The expectation is that they will be joining the fold after Christmas if not the week before Christmas.”
Experienced club manager Barton took over the Derry reins from Brian McIver in September and admits that his first two months in the position have been eye-opening.
“It has been good in the sense that an awful lot of players are keen to represent Derry,” he said.
“It’s been very challenging and you learn a new respect for existing managers and those that have gone before. Thankfully there are a lot of good people in Derry who have helped ease me in.”
Derry return to competitive action on December 13 when they take on Tyrone at Armagh’s Athletic Grounds in the O’Fiaich Cup.
It’s the first of at least four games against the Red Hands as Derry also meet Mickey Harte’s men in the Dr McKenna Cup, NFL Division Two and the Ulster Championship.
“There are a few young fellas who have come into the squad but until we play competitive matches we’ll not know too much about them,” Barton explained.
“It’s difficult for them as well because every player would like to play consistently for three to four games before they’re judged on capability or otherwise.
“But we have some players who have come in and they have really worked quite hard over the last number of weeks in strength and conditioning. We haven’t really played any football so the O’Fiaich Cup is the first official outing.”
He added: “Every time Derry meet Tyrone it’s going to be a competitive game.
“We will learn quite a lot from the Tyrone experience despite the fact that both teams will probably be experimental. You can’t beat matches in comparison to training.
“Anybody who is there at the minute would have aspirations to be there as the year progresses. At this moment in time we’d be heavy on numbers comparatively to what we will be as the season progresses.
“They’ll all be out to impress because within the next month we’ll be trimming the panel again – that’s the reality of county football.”
