PATRICK McBrearty has dismissed speculation that he may not feature for Donegal this season, confirming to The Irish News that he will be home as planned at the end of January.
The Kilcar man was yesterday reported by The Irish Star to have no date set for his return from a break in America, where he has been for the past couple of month and it was claimed he was working on setting up a business.
However, McBrearty last night confirmed that he will return home on January 27 and will return to county training as soon as he gets home, saying he intends “100 per cent to be playing for Donegal this year”.
The arrangement from him to take the pre-season window off had been agreed with Declan Bonner back in October and the plans have not changed since.
Meanwhile, there will be no late interventions in the row over whether Donegal will play in tomorrow’s McKenna Cup semi-final, with Monaghan having officially been granted free passage to the final.
Declan Bonner had indicated after his side’s group stage win over Monaghan last weekend that they would potentially be unable to field for the semi-final if they got that far.
Victory over Derry secured their place in the last four, after which he reiterated his comments, but his seriousness only became evident when Donegal made a formal request to Ulster Council to push the game back to midweek.
That was rejected by the provincial body on the basis that it would possibly increase the pressure on the players affected by asking them to play on both Sunday and Tuesday night, rather than choosing between county and college.
Donegal subsequently informed Ulster GAA officially on Thursday evening that they were withdrawing from the competition.
Rumours that Armagh, who only narrowly missed out on qualifying as the best runner-up ahead of Monaghan, had been asked to step in and fulfil the fixture had no grounding, with Ulster Council informing Seamus McEnaney’s men that they had been given a bye to the final.
They will face either Tyrone or Down in the decider next Saturday evening, July 18, with throw-in at 7.30pm. The game will be held in Armagh’s Athletic Grounds regardless of which side Monaghan will face.
In a statement released yesterday, Ulster GAA said: “Following the withdrawal of Donegal from the Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup, Ulster GAA wish to confirm that the final of the competition between Monaghan and Down/Tyrone will take place at the Athletic Grounds, Armagh on Saturday, January 18.
Tyrone are seeking to win an eighth title in nine years, while Down (2008) and Monaghan (2003) are both looking to bridge gaps back to their last successes in the pre-season competition.
Whether the future of the McKenna Cup comes under threat now remains to be seen. This year’s competition had already seen counties decide to proceed without university teams involved, owing to the clash with the Sigerson Cup.
The nine counties had been given the option of an earlier start in mid-December that would have seen the competition finished up by mid-January, by which stage all three universities would have been expected to have been knocked out.
That left the McKenna Cup reduced to six teams, and Donegal’s withdrawal has cast a further shadow over the pre-season cup, which has come under a bit more pressure in recent years as the fixtures calendar has tightened.
It is unclear whether Donegal will be sanctioned by Ulster Council for their withdrawal. A spokesperson for the provincial body could not be contacted yesterday.
