On Monday, City boss John Caulfield said he was willing to give €100 to Marymount Hospice if the Lilywhites’ ace marksman doesn’t feature at the Aviva but yesterday, Kenny said Hoban was still struggling with the ankle injury he sustained in Friday night’s draw with Bohemians.

“He hasn’t trained the last few days,” he said. “He just came down heavily on his ankle. We’ll make a decision later in the week.

“Hopefully, he’ll make it. We’re not playing games. He’s obviously hurt himself.”

“An ankle injury, depending on the extent of it, is one of those where in a final people do want to get on. A hamstring, a muscle injury, is different. Patrick has never played at the Aviva. This would be his first time ever playing there. I know it’s been very much an ambition of his.

“I’ve spoken to him about that for a while now. At the start of the season, I spoke to him about it. So it’s something he’s been looking forward to. He’ll be keen to play but he’s not able to train at the moment.”

And Kenny added that there can be no room for sentiment when it comes to making the final call for Sunday.

“In my experience of cup finals, players can often pull through whether they were right or not,” he said.

“But you can’t be sentimental about these things, you have to base your decisions on good medical judgment and your own instincts.”

Jamie McGrath (groin) and Robbie Benson (knee) continue to be monitored while Stephen O’Donnell has made a remarkable late bid for inclusion.

“Stephen obviously played on Friday and trained today so we’ll have to see on that one,” his manager said.

“It’s an amazing recovery really from a broken leg and tough period for him wondering when he would get back. But he’s obviously short of match fitness and training so we’ll see how that one goes.”

Kenny said he understands why there might be some fatigue in Irish football circles at the prospect of Cork and Dundalk meeting in the Aviva for the fourth year in a row. But he also made it clear he holds the opposition chiefly responsible for the fact that the three finals so far have been some way short of spectacular.

“I understand the fatigue,” he said.

“I was in two finals with Derry. We drew 2-2 and lost on penalties in 2008 and two years earlier won 4-3 against St Pat’s. Eleven goals in two matches. These three matches haven’t been absolute thrillers. We’ve set out to play. They’ve had a game-plan to sort of stifle and try and keep it tight. They’ve all been a bit different obviously but certainly there haven’t been the goals scored or the two-all or three-all draws that people like to see in a final.

“But in other ways it’s been quite fascinating. These things are never easy to predict. People going into Sunday would be saying, well you wouldn’t know what way it will go. It’s unpredictable because of the nature of it. People love sport and two teams really going at it with a view to trying to win the cup and bring it home. That has its own intrigue.”

The Dundalk boss, who was celebrating his 47th birthday yesterday, also went into some geographical detail to counter John Caulfield’s suggestion that Dundalk are trying to monopolise the Dublin player market.

“We actually have more players from the west of Ireland than we have from Dublin,” he said.

“The west of Ireland is a great market for us. We have players from rural parts of Ireland, Belmullet and Bohola, Loughrea, and Salthill, and Galway, three from Galway. We have four from the north-west as well, in Georgie Kelly and three lads from Derry. Four from Meath and one from Westmeath. We don’t have many Dubs, four or five.

“All of our players came mainly in clusters, two from Bray, two from UCD, two from Mervue, two from St Patrick’s, two from Derry. Portadown with Brian Gartland. It’s been different. We’ve not signed any players from the top two clubs, Cork City or Shamrock Rovers. We have all young Irish players who want to get better. That’s really it. Young Irish players who want to get better.”