He may have lost a bit of sleep this week but that hasn't been enough to stop Mickey Harte from selecting Tiernan McCann in his starting lineup for Sunday's All Ireland semi-final against Kerry.
McCann had always been expected to start despite being kept up late in Croke Park on Wednesday as his appeal against that eight week for discrediting the association was eventually overturned. Harte has however, been forced into one change from that win over Monaghan with Justin McMahon being brought into the half-back line to replace his older brother Joe who has been ruled out with injury.
On the other hand, Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice has had a few more difficult decisions to make. The majority of those decisions have had to be made in the forward line where Fitzmaurice is certainly not stuck for options. The big news is that Kieran Donaghy returns to the starting lineup while James O'Donoghue has won his race to be fit for the clash.
Donaghy and O'Donoghue are joined by Colm Cooper in what is an incredibly star studded attack. Fitzmaurice has also made two other changes from the team that hammered Kildare in the quarter final. Aidan O'Mahony drops to the bench and Peter Crowley comes in while Brian Sheehan also misses out in favour of Johnny Buckley.
Kerry team to face Tyrone:
1. Brendan Kealy
2. Paul Murphy, 3. Marc Ó Sé, 4. Shane Enright
5. Jonathan Lyne, 6. Peter Crowley, 7. Killian Young
8. David Moran, 9. Anthony Maher
10. Stephen O’Brien, 11. Johnny Buckley, 12. Donnchadh Walsh
13. Colm Cooper, 14. Kieran Donaghy, 15. James O’Donoghue
Tyrone team to face Kerry:
1. Niall Morgan (Edendork)
2. Aidan McCrory, 3. Ronan McNamee, 4.Cathal McCarron
5. Ronan McNabb, 6. Justin McMahon, 7. Peter Harte
8. Colm Cavanagh, 9. Mattie Donnelly
10. Tiernan McCann, 11. Mark Bradley, 12. Conor Meyler
13. Darren McCurry, 14. Sean Cavanagh, 15. Connor McAliskey
