Hayes a worry for Cork
John Hayes could be doubtful for Sunday’s NFL clash with Westmeath, after being forced off injured in UCC’s Sigerson Cup win over St Mary’s yesterday, according to the Evening Echo.
Hayes limped off six minutes from the end in Portloaise yesterday, suffering from a “dead” leg and while it is not believed to be too serious, it does cast a doubt over his fitness for Sunday’s game in Mullingar.
Meanwhile, Martin Cronin has been named at full-back in the only change in personnel from the team which beat Kerry last Friday.
Midfielder Dermot Hurley drops to the bench with Owen Sexton coming in at wing-back.
The changes see Cronin move from his normal wing-back slot to full-back, which is vacated by Derek Kavanagh, who moves to midfield.
Sexton takes Cronin’s place on the wing.
Full-back is a new role for Cronin, who it could be argued has suffered in the past for his versatility.
Although normally a wing-back, he has had stints playing midfield with Nemo and, under Larry Tompkins, was used in the Cork attack on a couple of occasions.
In fact in Tompkin's last game in charge, Cronin started at centre-half-forward in Cork’s All-Ireland qualifier defeat to Roscommon in 2003.
The Cork attack remains unchanged though, despite speculation that James Masters might lose out to Kevin O’Sullivan, who impressed after coming on as a sub against Kerry.
Meanwhile, UCC advanced to the quarter-finals of the Datapac Sigerson Cup yesterday by beating St Mary’s College, Belfast 0-10 to 0-8.
Points in the final 10 minutes from Fintan Gould and Donnacha Walsh sealed a narrow win for the college.
