DUBLIN pair Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey are injury doubts for this weekend’s National League clash with Monaghan.
The duo picked up injuries over the Sigerson weekend, though both still managed a significant impact in helping UCD collect the silverware for the first time since 1996.
Mannion is the more serious doubt after he suffered a suspected quad injury in the first half of Saturday’s final at Jordanstown.
The Kilmacud Crokes man is back on the Dublin panel after taking last year out to travel to China, and had started the first two National League games, which saw the holders record wins over Kerry and Mayo.
However, he had to be helped from the field after 17 minutes of the clash with Dublin rivals DCU.
Asked about the injury and whether he felt he would be fit for the visit of Monaghan to Croke Park on Saturday evening, the 22-year-old said: “I don't know, it was just my quad, I felt a little tweak but hopefully it's nothing too serious.
“It was frustrating, never a good time to get injured but I won't worry too much about it.
“I hope so. We'll go back and talk to the physios and assess it during the week.”
McCaffrey left the semi-final win over University Limerick after less than a quarter of an hour because of a hamstring strain.
He was fit to excel in the final on Saturday, though the UCD skipper again went off late on in the 0-10 to 2-2 win over DCU.
The 2015 Footballer of the Year has made substitute appearances in both of Dublin’s first two games and didn’t seem overly worried by the strain.
“I thought I had a worse injury than I did [on Friday]. I came off and the lads did a bit of work on it but it's fine. No excuses there.
“Someone else fresher coming on was going to be able to do a job.”
With the issue of player burnout again looming large as the GAA prepares for its Annual Congress this weekend, McCaffrey doesn’t seem to mind the extra games.
“Not really. We all enjoy playing football so it's a great time of year.
“Obviously you need windows in between to train and help lads and get right, but sure we all play football because we enjoy it, so why not?”
UCD’s success on Saturday ended a 20-year famine for the Sigerson Cup’s most successful team, who claimed their 33rd title with the narrow win over DCU.
They had been edging their way back into the foreground of the competition in recent seasons, but they hadn’t appeared in a final since losing the 2013 decider to NUI Galway.
“In the last two years we've been beaten in the semi-final and two years ago we were just poor against Jordanstown and then last year DCU were just a bit better at the end,” said UCD captain McCaffrey.
“This year we felt we'd been knocking long enough and it was time to get over the line and thankfully we got a couple of younger lads in to help us do that.
“The winning doesn't last forever.
“In all the teams I've been involved in, we had years when we won very little so when the going is good, you enjoy it and there will be definitely be other teams who could catch us in the near future and we have to work hard to get back to where we were.”
