Cork captain Graham Canty is confident he will be fit to face Down in next weekend’s All-Ireland final at Croke Park.
The Bantry Blues clubman suffered a hamstring injury in the Rebels’ quarter-final victory over Roscommon and although he was named to start against Dublin in the semi-final, he was withdrawn with a recurrence of the injury at half time.
Speaking at the Cork footballers’ media conference on Thursday night, however, Canty revealed that he was ready to resume full training and was in with a good chance of starting on Sunday week.
“I’m nearly at full training and hoping to be available for selection. I’ll take a full part (in training) tonight and at the weekend,†he said.
Cork manager Conor Counihan also revealed that Fintan Goold should be available for selection despite an ankle injury, but doubted whether Anthony Lynch, who has been absent for most of the summer, would be able to play a part.
“We’re optimistic enough that Fintan will be available,†said Counihan.
“Anthony is a doubt at this stage, though we’ll know more later on in the week. He’s done some training, but he’s aggravated a calf injury so we won’t know the full extent of that just yet.â€
The Rebels haven’t been entirely convincing in their march to the All-Ireland final and there is a perception that Counihan has yet to settle on his best starting fifteen. Counihan revealed that he is yet to pick his team for the final but revealed that he will be closer to doing so after this weekend.
“There’s four other heads go into that as well as mine,†he said when asked had he the team selected.
“Obviously we’re pretty clear in where we’re going, but we’ll get through the weekend and play a bit of a match on Saturday evening and see how things go.
“Generally speaking, you leave the opposition worry about you rather than us worrying about them, but at some times you might make special provision for certain teams and certain individuals,†he added.
