GAELIC GAMES Team News: Jason Sherlock is Dublin's only absentee ahead of Saturday night's trip to Tralee to face All-Ireland champions Kerry.
But manager Paul Caffrey has made two further changes to the side which lost to Tyrone in round two of the National Football League, as Declan Lally and Conal Keaney return to the forward lines.
Liam Óg Ó hEineacháin replaces Sherlock, who is carrying an ankle complaint, at centre forward. Meanwhile, David Henry and Robbie Boyle drop to the bench, although the latter is suffering from flu and may be seen as a more effective impact substitute anyway.
The floodlit match is the first of two high-profile live football league games on TG4 this weekend. The other, on Sunday, sees a new-look Laois face Armagh at O'Moore Park.
Laois were expected to struggle in the league campaign as a sizeable number of players were committed to club duties with Portlaoise. But four O'Byrne Cup wins and opening victories in the league have given Mick O'Dwyer a timely boost, and all this without the injured Tom Kelly, Joe Higgins and Brian McDonald.
Kelly has recovered from a broken collarbone sustained against Kilkenny in the O'Byrne Cup, while Higgins and McDonald are recovering from a cruciate injury and broken leg respectively.
"Beano (McDonald) had the last of the minor surgery when they removed a screw from his leg recently, so hopefully he will be back in eight weeks," said selector Declan O'Loughlin. "We won't push him, though, he has done plenty for Laois football so we will just nurse him back to fitness."
For Armagh, the upside of Crossmaglen Rangers losing the All-Ireland club football semi-final to Portlaoise is that Joe Kernan can pick from a near full deck this weekend. However, certain key players are still absent.
Tony McEntee's ankle ligament damage, sustained in that defeat, means he will not come out of plaster for another three weeks. Oisín McConville may be rested for the short-term after recovering from a back injury.
"Three to four weeks wouldn't have made much difference," said Kernan. "Also, it would have been nice to bring them back in as All-Ireland champions. Either way, the young lads have done well in their absence, although some of them may have to make way."
Two who will not be making way are surely Kernan's sons Aaron and Stephen, who look set for a long tenure at senior intercounty level.
Of greater concern is the absence from training of Diarmuid Marsden. Along with Barry O'Hagan, who retired from intercounty level last year, Marsden has taken over the reins at his club, Clan Na Gael in Lurgan, in an attempt to revive the sleeping giants' fortunes.
The deferred Sunday match on TG4 is the Division 2B clash of Derry and Cavan, a repeat of the All-Ireland qualifier that set Mickey Moran's men on a journey to the championship semi-finals last summer.
Many of the players who contested that encounter with eventual champions Kerry are still absent through injury. In particular, Seán Marty Lockhart and Enda Muldoon are on the treatment table. Lockhart had been switched to centre back for this year but is struggling with an ankle problem, while Muldoon is back in light training after knee surgery.
However, captain Paddy Bradley and Niall McCusker appear to be fit, while Gavin Donaghy, Gerard O'Kane, Conleth Moran (all Queen's) and Mark Lynch (UUJ) have returned from Sigerson duty. Patsy Bradley's suspension, after being red-carded against Fermanagh in the McKenna Cup, is up on April 24th.
In hurling, Lar Corbett makes a return to the Tipperary substitutes bench ahead of this Sunday's charity challenge match against Kilkenny in Semple Stadium (2.30pm). Also, goalkeeper Brendan Cummins makes an immediate return after damaging his ankle in last Sunday's national league victory over Limerick.
The game is in aid of the Zambia Immersion Project, a scheme set up by former Thurles CBS principal Br Michael O'Donoghue.
