Louth hit by player withdrawals
A total of seven players have withdrawn from the Louth senior football panel ahead of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers.
Five players have been axed by Louth manager Eamonn McEneaney due to disciplinary reasons after they failed to travel home on the team bus following Louth's Leinster SFC quarter-final defeat to Wexford on June 17.
Naomh Mairtin duo JP Rooney and Nicky McDonnell, Jamie Carr of Newtown Blues and Mattock Rangers players Mark Brennan, David Brennan, David Reid and Christy Grimes are all no longer part of the Louth panel "for some reason or another," according to the Louth boss.
Carr and Reid are to spend the rest of the summer in America, while Mark Brennan is set to join them.
Louth are away to Limerick in the opening round of the qualifiers on Saturday week but despite the withdrawals, McEneaney is confident some of the Wee county's lesser known players can step up to the mark.
"We have a lot of different guys with us who we are only too delighted to give a chance to. At this moment in time, we have 32 committed players. We had a meeting with those guys last Friday and everyone is very determined to move on," he explained.
