The inevitable excitement surrounding John O'Mahony's first outing as new Mayo football manager has been somewhat tempered by the news that forward Ciarán McDonald will be missing from action for the foreseeable future.
Mayo travel to Ballinode this evening to play Sligo IT in the FBD Connacht League, the first notable step of O'Mahony's three-year term, but a back injury which McDonald has been carrying for several months has ruled him out of playing any football for the past few weeks.
O'Mahony is still hopeful an operation can be avoided yet any appearance in Mayo's National League campaign appears unlikely. "This is more of a long-term injury problem," explained O'Mahony, "actually something that Ciarán carried into the All-Ireland final last year.
"He's been having a series of scans, and has a disc problem. It's something that probably will need an operation eventually, but we're looking at ways of avoiding that for the time being, because an operation now would probably mean he'd miss the whole season. So right now we're just looking at other types of treatment that will help get him through it."
McDonald's absence is not a massive concern for O'Mahony for the time being, as the 30-year-old was likely to sit out the early rounds of the league anyway. Apart from McDonald there has been a full show from the existing Mayo panel, with all the seasoned players such as Kevin O'Neill, James Nallen and David Heaney back on board for another year, along with David Brady. He announced his retirement last year but O'Mahony persuaded him to reconsider.
"That's the case all right," confirmed O'Mahony. "The first thing we did was to get together with the 2006 panel, and they all committed for another year, including David Brady. But it was gradual enough start, and any training we did before Christmas was done indoors. We felt the players had been through a very long season, so we didn't want them out on cold dark nights and wet pitches.
"Our first outdoor session was done on New Year's Day, which I suppose was as good a time as any to start. And we have done some trial matches among ourselves in the last couple of weeks. The bulk of the panel had been away on the team holiday for nine or 10 days there, and only got back on Sunday morning, so obviously their preparations haven't cranked up yet. And the panel is very much open-ended, and will remain so throughout the league. We've used around 50 or 55 different players at this stage, including several under-21s."
O'Mahony has been busy on two fronts though (last year he was added to the Fine Gael ticket for the Mayo constituency) and is looking forward to getting out on the sidelines again, along with his backroom team of Kieran Gallagher, Tommy Lyons and Martin Carney.
Gallagher served as a selector under Mickey Moran last year, and Lyons was manager when Ballina Stephenites won the 2005 All-Ireland club title. Carney is an RTÉ analyst but also managed Mayo to reach one All-Ireland minor and two All-Ireland under-21 finals in the 1990s.
Mayo recently played a challenge game against St Brigid's, the Connacht club champions, but this evening's game marks the official opening of O'Mahony's new term.
Of course, bigger challenges lie ahead. Mayo's first league game is against Kerry (who crushed them in the All-Ireland final) and later their first championship match against Galway (whom he managed for seven years) will bring a far stronger spotlight on O'Mahony.
In the meantime he's keeping his panel open-ended for as long as he can. Under-21 midfielder Barry Moran is out of action with a groin injury, with James Gill, Pat Kelly, John Healy, Colm Lyons and Stephen Carolan also sitting out for the moment for various reasons, while former panel members Gary Mullins and Pat Nevin are back on board.
One other notable addition since O'Mahony took over is fitness trainer Jim Kilty, who is still better known as an athletics coach but worked with the Wexford hurlers last year.
"Jim has been up a few times, and has been very much involved," said O'Mahony. "He's put together a strength and conditioning programme and other gym work, designed on an individual basis, and also done a lot of fitness testing. We wanted the best advice available to us, and I believe Jim definitely has that."
