Ciaran Whelan is in the rare position of benefiting from the foot-and-mouth outbreak. A four-week suspension in early February had originally ruled him out of Dublin's pivotal National Football League game with Kerry, but the suspension of fixtures due to the disease outbreak pushed the game back to this Sunday.

As a result, Whelan can take his place in Tom Carr's selection. His return is the only change in personnel from the team that beat Donegal a month ago - giving Dublin their first points of the league - and his presence in Killarney on Sunday will bring some welcome resistance against the All-Ireland champions.

Whelan will partner Enda Sheehy at midfield, replacing Darran Homan who instead starts on the bench. A number of other players have changed position, with Paddy Christie moving from full back to corner back in a switch with Coman Coggins.

Vinny Murphy also moves into corner forward, giving Dessie Farrell the unenviable task of taking on Seamus Moynihan in the full forward position.

With Jason Sherlock in the midst of his 12-week suspension, Carr will be hoping that Colin Moran and Wayne McCarthy get through tomorrow's Leinster under-21 semi-final against Kildare in Mullingar without any injury problems.

Sunday's game, which was originally postponed for a variety of reasons and now goes ahead on the fourth attempt, is likely to decide who wins the relegation battle from division 1A.

It was expected that Paul Curran would get an experimental position among the attack, but he was unavailable for selection due to overseas commitments.

Kerry, who named their team on Wednesday, have included 11 of the All-Ireland winning side as well as restoring Maurice Fitzgerald to the starting line-up for the first time since the Munster final of 1999.

Elsewhere, Offaly's Brian Whelahan will go into unchartered territory when the hurling league resumes on Sunday. For the first time in his career, Whelahan will start at left corner back - moving from his more familiar berth in the half-back line.

This is the first time in many years that an Offaly manager has had to plan a team without the services of Joe Dooley and Michael Duignan.

Michael Bond received the news on Wednesday that both men are retiring and among the young blood to get starting places on Sunday are corner forwards Rory Hanniffy and Damien Murray - who picked up an exciting 0-14 in Offaly's successful league opener against Galway.

Wexford will introduce two senior debutants for their Division 1B meeting with Cork in Enniscorthy.

Darren Stamp, who plays with Oulart-The Ballagh, replaces Martin Byrne at right half forward while Byrne's younger brother Colm takes over from Larry O'Gorman at full forward.

Manager Tony Dempsey has made five changes in total from the team which lost heavily to Waterford in the last round of the league on February 25th.

Rod Guiney returns from suspension, Rory McCarthy is back from holidays and Paul Finn takes over from the injured Garry Laffan.

Meanwhile, Kilkenny clubs have given their approval for the setting up of development hurling squads in the county.

Among the major points are that no player will be picked for an underage Kilkenny side without having been involved in the squads, while underage selectors in the future will come from the group of coaches involved. A number of past and present Kilkenny hurlers will be enlisted to spearhead the squads.

Graigue-Ballycallan have made the minimum of changes for tomorrow's All-Ireland club hurling semi-final replay with Sixmilebridge.

As expected, Thomas McCluskey was unable to take his place because of injury and instead his brother Padraig, who actually replaced him in the drawn game, takes over at wing back.

Opponents Sixmilebridge won't name their team for Thurles until after their final training session this evening. "There are a few players that I haven't seen this week," said manager Paddy Meehan, "but we do expect to have a full strength squad".

GRAIGUE-BALLYCALLAN (SH v Sixmilebridge): J Ronan; J Butler, P O'Dwyer, J Ryall; P McCluskey, T Comerford, A Hoyne; E O'Dwyer, J Young; M Hoyne, J Hoyne, T Dermody; A Ronan, D Byrne, E Brennan.

DUBLIN (SF v Kerry): D Byrne; M Cahill, C Coggins, P Christie; S Ryan, J Magee, P Andrews; C Whelan, E Sheehy; S Connell, I Robertson, C Moran; V Murphy, D Farrell, W McCarthy. Subs: C Boyle, M Casey, I Clarke, D Homan, T Lynch, K Donnelly, N O'Donoghue, K Darcy, D Magee.

OFFALY (SH v Meath): S Byrne; S Whelahan, M O'Hara, Brian Whelahan; C Cassidy, J Brady, K Martin; G Oakley, Barry Whelahan; J Dooley, G Hanniffy, J Pilkington; R Hanniffy, J Troy, D Murray.

WEXFORD (SH v Cork): D Fitzhenry; C Kehoe, R Guiney, S Flood; L Dunne, D Ryan, D Ruth; A Fenlon, M Jordan; D Stamp, P Codd, R McCarthy; B Goff, C Byrne, P Finn.

KILDARE (under-21 v Dublin): P White; J Sharpe, AN Other, M Dunne; B Dunne, M Wright, AN Other; R Sweeney, P Hurley; C O'Reilly, J O'Donoghue, D McCormack; N McGrogan, K Donnelly, T Rossiter.

TYRONE (under-21 v Down): P McConnell; G Devlin, D O'Hanlon, M McGee; C Meenagh, C Gormley, P Jordan; P Donnelly, C McAnallen; R Mellon, B McGuigan, S O'Neill; E McGinley, K Hughes, E Mulligan.

DOWN (under-21 v Tyrone): R Morgan; J Clarke, B Grant, E McGee; D McGrady, B Kearney, M Cole; L Sloan, L Doyle; B Coulter, M Walsh, A Devlin; K Oakes, A O'Prey, R Murtagh.

Allianz Ireland, sponsors of the National leagues, have appealed to county team supporters and players to co-operate fully with the disinfectant measures for foot-and-mouth disease being taken at venues around the country when attending this weekend's matches.