NEW Down football boss Eamonn Burns has suffered a massive double blow ahead of his charges' NFL Division One campaign.
In the wake of the Jim McCorry-managed side securing promotion from Division Two last year, the Mourne county look set to face a massive task to retain top flight status for this year's programme of matches.
Firstly, Burns will have to contend with the loss of star forward - and last season's captain - Conor Laverty for the entire Division One campaign.
In addition, versatile defender Benny McArdle, equally at home at full-back or centre-back, is almost certain to miss at least the first five matches of the seven round schedule, which commences with a floodlit Newry tie against Donegal on Saturday week.
"At the moment, Conor Laverty is very tied up with family commitments and he's also in the process of moving house," explained double All-Ireland medal winner Burns on the unwelcome situation regarding the pacey Kilcoo man. "So there's no way that he will be involved with us in any of the National League matches.
"As well, with regard to Benny McArdle, I think the best we can hope for him is that he will make the last two League games against Cork and Mayo.
"Benny has been out of football since he ruptured his Achilles tendon in training the week before Down played Wexford in last year's qualifiers.
"At the moment he's working away on his rehab in the gym and he's not far off making a return to training in the field.
"But at the same time there's no point in rushing Benny's return to playing a match and I don't think there''s any chance of making any of the first five League games," added the Down boss.
Understandably Burns, who featured in the back-room team of former Mourne County supremo James McCartan in 2013 and 2014, is disappointed to be unable to call on such two key performers. But he is still adopting a very positive stance on the absence of Laverty and McArdle.
"Of course any manager would prefer if he could call on players on the calibre of Conor and Benny," stressed Burns, who started in Down's All-Ireland wins in 1991 and 1994.
"However, the absence of the two lads gives us an opportunity to try out new players at the top level of competition and to see how lads fare in different positions compared to where they normally play. So from that point of view it can be a plus for us," he added.
In a similar vein Burns is not harbouring any worries over the fact that his charges managed to pull off just one victory from their three outings in this year's McKenna Cup campaign.
"We allowed the students on our panel to play with their colleges in the McKenna Cup and that meant that we were without 10 players in that area," pointed out Burns, who thus couldn't call on the likes of star player Kevin McKernan.
"As well, three or four lads were not available because they had booked holidays at that time, and we were without [full-back] Luke Howard and [panelist] Connaire Harrison because of injury. But we are hoping that all of the lads we didn't have for the McKenna Cup will be available for the first League game against Donegal".
