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11th Sep 2021

Tyrone opt to keep Cathal McShane on the bench as they name an unchanged team

Lee Costello

He has made a big impact from the bench this summer.

Many have speculated whether or not Cathal McShane could be starting in today’s final after scoring 1-3 against Kerry in the semi-final from the bench.

The full forward has been recovering from a serious ankle injury and has been carefully managed, not making appearances in the league and getting his first taste of football this season in the championship opener against Cavan.

In 2019 McShane was the top scorer in the county and focal point of the Red hand attack, so now that his return to fitness looks to be going smoothly, some pundits believe he could start the final against Mayo.

According to the team line-ups released by Tyrone however, this is not the case.

“We have a good panel of players and anyone could pop up at any time.

“Cathal has contributed brilliantly. He’s had a long journey back from injury. Let’s just hope it’s a good day for Cathal and for everyone in Tyrone.

https://twitter.com/TyroneGAALive/status/1436355217646362629

“We’re looking forward to a very, very big game between Tyrone and Mayo. Everything is focused or as focused as we can get it.

“We’ve admired Mayo in all their endeavours over the years and they beat the team of teams in Dublin a couple of weeks ago and they are rightly placed as favourites.

“But it [reaching the All-Ireland Final] has been a great lift after all the goings on of the last year and a half.”

Here is the team in full:

N Morgan; M McKernan, R McNamee, P Hampsey; F Burns, P Harte, K McGeary; B Kennedy, C Kilpatrick; C Meyler, M O’Neill, N Sludden; D McCurry, M Donnelly, C McKenna. Subs: L Quinn, M Bradley, D Canavan, P Donaghy, N Kelly, T McCann, B McDonnell, HP McGeary, C McShane, J Munroe, C Shields/C Munroe

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