Injury to Fallon a huge blow for Mayo

Mayo's classy midfielder Pat Fallon is out of their first round Connacht championship match against Galway in McHale Park, Castlebar, on Sunday week. He chipped a bone in his right leg in a training session in Kiltimagh on Tuesday night when he collided with another player and will be out of action for at least a month.

The Mayo team doctor, Frank Davey, said yesterday that the injury is not as serious as at first feared. First indications were that the leg was broken below the knee but X-rays revealed otherwise.

"The bone is not broken but chipped. It is not a displaced fracture and no surgery was needed," Dr Davey said.

The leg has been put in plaster, but recovery is usually swift. Tommy O'Malley, one of the Mayo selectors, said the injury was the worst possible blow. "Pat was going very well in training and played great football in recent matches against Kildare and Dublin. The injury certainly lessens our chances of beating Galway.

"He is going to be missed at midfield but we are lucky to have a few other players in the squad who can play in that position," he said. Among the options open to the selectors is the moving of David Heaney from the half-back line to midfield or moving Liam McHale from full forward. Both Heaney and McHale have plenty of experience at midfield. In fact Heaney played at midfield in last year's All-Ireland final.

Mayo were already worried about the fitness of Kevin Cahill, their big full back. He has been making progress, but somewhat slowly, and is unlikely to be considered for the Galway match. He might, however, be in a stronger position should Mayo qualify to meet Leitrim in the semi-final.

Mayo are going for their third Connacht title in-a-row and the loss of players such and Fallon and Cahill will not be helpful to their cause. The move of Down All Star, James McCartan from his home club Tullylish to Burren is still in the hands of the county's Activities Committee. McCartan is due to be married soon and will be moving to a house in Burren but for the moment his transfer of clubs has been held up. His selection at centre forward in the very strong Down side which meets Tyrone in the Ulster championship on Sunday is an attempt by the selectors to solve the problem caused by the retirement of Greg Blaney. Down supporters will be very interested to see how he fares.

Longford will not pick their side to play Westmeath in the Leinster championship preliminary round until tomorrow night but all the indications are that only one change will be made. Peter Lynch, who made a good impression when he came on as a substitute just before half time, is expected to retain his place. He replaced Gareth Johnston on that occasion, when he scored two points from play.

The Longford selectors will also have to make an alteration to their list of substitutes. David Blessington was introduced in their last match, against Wexford, but was sent off and is therefore under suspension.

After scoring their first championship victory for eight years in that game against Wexford, the morale in the Longford squad is very high and there is every confidence that they can beat Westmeath and qualify to meet Laois in the next round.

They have two slight injury worries following their thrilling victory over Wexford last Sunday. Niall Sheridan has a knee injury and Pauric Davis, a key man in last Sunday's effort - he scored eight points, six of them from play - took a knock on his left leg. Both trained during the week and are expected to take their places in the attack.

It now seems likely that this year's National Hurling League will not be completed until the autumn. Following the second postponement of the Kilkenny-Antrim relegation play-off it has now emerged that the Division Two semi-final between Down and Kerry has also been postponed. Fixture pile-ups caused by the start of the championship season and the build-up of club championship fixtures has led to a situation in which neither of these two outstanding fixtures have dates available at present.

Kilkenny are particularly annoyed about the postponement of their match with Antrim. It had been fixed for Parnell Park some weeks ago but was postponed because of poor pitch conditions.