Donegal senior football manager Declan Bonner has said the county will not be able to field a team in Sunday’s Dr McKenna Cup semi-final against Monaghan.
Donegal may have up to 13 players involved in the opening round of Sigerson Cup colleges action this weekend.
Donegal beat Derry by 1-10 to 8 points last night to qualify for the last four.
The Monaghan match is due to throw-in at noon on Sunday at a venue yet to be determined.
Bonner told Highland Radio that his hands are tied, but he is hoping a solution can be found:
“Putting the game back until Tuesday night or Wednesday night would be an option. Again, talking to the medical team in there, a lot of those guys are playing a lot of football. This is crazy stuff that some of these guys could be playing four matches in the space of 10 days. It’s very, very difficult. In terms of player welfare we have got to be very careful. At this stage we don’t have the numbers to field (a team).
He added:
"Whoever fixed the Sigerson in the middle of this campaign, it’s absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know do colleges, or authorities in GAA or the Ulster Council, do they communicate or what? We have a lot of young lads, they are all in third level, some of them are on scholarships and they have to play with their colleges, and that’s the bottom line. We always treat the McKenna Cup with the respect it deserves, but if you can’t put out a team, you can’t put out a team. I am not going to go around club players that haven’t done any work for the last three months to go and fill the numbers for the weekend. We’ll just wait and see.”
Tyrone will play Down in the other semi-final.
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