Tyrone defender Michael McKernan set to miss out on semi-final

TYRONE SELECTOR COLM McCullagh has ruled Michael McKernan out of contention to play against Kerry in this Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final.

The Coalisland defender was among the shining lights in the Red Hands side in a difficult league season and had brought that form into the championship.

However, he continues to struggle with a shoulder injury, sustained in the group stages win over Cavan.

“Probably the time would be running out there for Michael. He’s doing a bit of non-contact stuff,” said McCullagh at Tyrone’s press event on Tuesday.

“He’s doing a bit of running stuff, non-contact but no contact up to now. If he were to miss the game, obviously it’d be a huge blow for Tyrone’s chances. He’s probably one of Tyrone’s most consistent performers this season.

“He’s going really well, has Michael. He really was carrying the game to teams and was getting us out and driving us forward and chipping in with scores and stuff and doing well in his defensive duties as well. It’d be a major loss but again, it’s an opportunity for somebody else to step up and we’re going to need that.”

McCullagh also has played up to the underdogs status given to Tyrone in the wake of Kerry’s demolition of All-Ireland champions, Armagh in the quarter-final.

“We’re down as underdogs. I suppose our performance against Dublin the last day wouldn’t have been as impressive as what Kerry was against Armagh. So, no, we’re definitely going down as underdogs,” he said.

“We feel there’s a lot of room for improvement as well on our performance from the last day so we’re just hoping that can be the case. We know we’re going to have to improve on what we’ve shown to date to beat this Kerry team.”

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