Talismanic Westmeath forward Dessie Dolan has been declared as a major doubt ahead of his county’s All-Ireland qualifier against Antrim on Saturday in Casement Park.
Pat Flanagan, the Westmeath manager, confirmed on Tuesday that Dolan suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury during a training session last week.
Westmeath will go into Saturday’s match following a 12 point defeat to Wexford in the Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter-final, and Dolan would be a huge loss to the team for this crucial game.
“We’ll give him as long as possible to recover, but at the moment it would be 50-50,” said Flanagan.
“Not having him would be a huge blow to us, but he was struggling with a hamstring injury before the Wexford match and he came through, so hopefully he can come through for this game as well.”
Dolan is not the only injury worry for Flanagan and Westmeath. Defenders Frank Boyle and Kieran Gavin, along with forward John Gaffney have all been ruled out of Saturday’s clash as they have been unable to recover from knocks they picked up during the Wexford game.