Lynch now unlikely to face Meath

Kildare's Martin Lynch is almost certainly out of Sunday's Leinster senior football final against Meath at Croke Park. He injured a collarbone in the semi-final against Laois and was replaced.

At first it was thought that the injury wasn't serious, but subsequent X-ray examinations revealed that the damage was worse than at first thought and his training has been greatly curtailed.

In the Laois match he was replaced by Padraig Brennan, who is now likely to retain that position. Otherwise the team, to be named tonight after training in Newbridge, is expected to remain the same. Meath will select their team tonight but are likely to be forced to name replacements for Paddy Reynolds and Jimmy McGuinness. Reynolds has a persistent leg injury which he suffered against Louth and McGuinness injured ribs against Louth and they have been very slow to heal. Both are expected to miss out. The replacement possibilities include Hank Traynor, who replaced Reynolds at left half back in the Louth match, and Stephen Dillon, who has also figured as a substitute in the championship.

Galway's selectors have a number of injury worries in their squad as they contemplate their Connacht final replay against Roscommon in Hyde Park on Saturday. The injury list includes Jarlath Fallon, Declan Meehan, Tommy Joyce and Richie Fahy and their fitness or otherwise could have a bearing on Saturday's lineup.

Fahy has a shoulder injury while Meehan and Joyce both received leg injuries in the drawn match while Fallon suffered a facial injury but is virtually certain to play. Roscommon are expected to name an unchanged team.

Galway manager John O'Mahony feels that the initiative may now have passed to the Roscommon team. "We are still fairly confident that we can win but it is not going to be easy. Roscommon have had three hard matches - two against Sligo and the drawn match with Galway. They also have home advantage this time. That will be a great encouragement to them. "We feel, however, that we can play better - and indeed we might have lost it. Look at what happened to Donegal. Some people have written off Roscommon but we have no intention of doing that," he says.

He has no real objection to playing on Saturday evening but believes that a more efficient way of running the championship should be adopted. "We started our championship on May 4th and we are now moving into August. This puts a great strain on players and clubs. Obviously it is wise to avoid playing three provincial finals on the same day but I believe that it should be streamlined in a more efficient way.

"However, that is an argument for another day. Our job now is to beat Roscommon on Saturday," he says. The Roscommon selectors are in the fortunate position of having fielded an almost identical side in three consecutive matches in recent weeks so that practically all of their players have now gone through three hard matches in just over a month, which will certainly have improved their prospects. One young man who may come into contention for a place at some stage on Saturday is Gerry Lohan, who is close to his 19th birthday and who has already made a big impression at schools and minor level.

Tipperary will not announce their side to face Kerry until tonight. They have two injury problems. Their goalkeeper, Philly Ryan from the Clonmel Commercials, has a bruised calf muscle and is having intensive treatment, but is expected to be fit in time.

There is greater concern, however, about midfielder John Costello from the Kilmacud Crokes club in Dublin. He a cracked bone in his right hand and is extremely doubtful. He would be regarded as a big loss.

Standing by for possible call-ups are James Williams, who has made a big impression in the minor grade, and Davy Hogan, who is back in training after injury.

Tipperary will be attempting to win their first Munster football title since 1935. Previous to that victory they lost four successive finals to Kerry in 1930, '31, '32 and '33 but finally made the breakthrough in 1935 by beating Cork by 2-8 to 1-2. The last time they beat Kerry in a Munster final was in 1920 when they won by 2-2 to 0-2.

Kerry will not name their side until tonight and will announce the team officially tomorrow morning. It is unlikely that Paidi O Se and his selectors will make any startling changes. However s O Se Tomas O Se, who was replaced by Eamon Fitzmaurice at half-time in the semi-final against Cork, may again lose out. William Kirby is still out of action after breaking his knee-cap in a training session at the beginning of June.

Roscommon (likely team): D Thompson; D Gavin, D Donlon, E Gavin; C Heneghan, C McDonald, M Ryan; G Keane, T Ryan; D Connellan, F O'Donnell, E Lohan; T Grehan, N Dinneen, L O'Dowd.