McDonald rejoins Mayo panel

The tenuous link between Kieran McDonald and the Mayo football panel has been resumed. After opting out earlier this year, citing his work commitments in Galway, McDonald has expressed his desire to rejoin the Mayo panel for as long as they remain in the championship.

McDonald made his request to team manager Pat Holmes at the weekend, and the manager then put the idea to the players at a meeting held on Sunday evening. It was reportedly greeted with general acceptance, and McDonald turned up - "in all his glory", according to a spokesperson for the board - at their training session last night.

His last appearance for the county was the All-Ireland qualifier defeat to Westmeath last July. Yet there are no guarantees that McDonald will play any part in the remainder of the championship. Holmes was still unsure about the state of McDonald's fitness, and it is highly unlikely that he will walk back into the starting 15 ahead of Saturday's scheduled All-Ireland fourth-round qualifier.

Still, when Holmes names his team tomorrow evening for Saturday's game - assuming it goes ahead as scheduled - it is expected that the skilful and often extravagant forward will feature among the substitutes. His fitness is understood to be close to championship level, at least based on his recent preparations and performances for his club Crossmolina, now under the management of John Maughan.

Last Sunday, for example, McDonald featured prominently in the senior county championship first-round game against Knockmore, contributing three points and working well off the ball in a game that finished level, 3-8 to 2-11. Though he did miss several free-kicks, he appeared to be in no way short of the necessary fitness.

County PRO Kevin O'Toole reckoned that McDonald would have no problem playing championship-standard football despite his absence from the intercounty scene since last summer.

"He has been training hard for the last two months with Crossmolina," O'Toole said, "and has definitely achieved a high level of fitness. And McDonald had already received two invitations from the Mayo management to rejoin the panel, but on both occasions he felt unable to give the full and necessary commitment."

After moving to Galway last year, McDonald felt that work commitments and pressure on his time would prevent him from giving his full commitment to the Mayo team at the start of the season. He missed their entire league campaign, and was then linked with a move to the Shrule\Glencorrib club in Galway, though the transfer request was withdrawn in early April.

Though he has dropped out of the Mayo panel at other points in his career, including their successful league run in 2001, there is little doubt about his talent. McDonald was central to Crossmolina's All-Ireland club success in 2001 and even as a part-player he would be a useful addition to Holmes in his efforts to take Mayo to the quarter-finals.

According to O'Toole, there is also a growing need to call up some extra Mayo players because of injuries.

"At this point we have already lost Mickey Mullins and Gary Mullins for the year," he said, "and the panel would be down to around 26 players. So there is a need now anyway to include a couple more."

Few team changes, however, are expected for Saturday's game from that which edged past Limerick in the third round. Team captain James Nallen is the main injury concern with a knee problem which forced him to miss the Crossmolina game on Sunday, but his centre-back position is likely to be left vacant until Saturday morning, giving him every chance to prove his fitness.