MAYO ARE SET to be without 15 players for their league opener against Cork next Sunday.
New manager Stephen Rochford takes the county into action for the first time in the league but he’ll have a depleted squad.
Castlebar Mitchels All-Ireland senior club campaign deprives him of players like Barry Moran, Tom Cunniffe and Patrick Durcan.
Then Stephen and Darren Coen continue to be tied up on the club front after they helped Hollymount-Carramore reach the All-Ireland intermediate decider with a semi-final win last Sunday.
Injury absentees compound Mayo’s problems and Rochford outlines their state before the trip to Leeside.
“Obviously the Castlebar contingent (are out), there are (also) a couple out of Hollymount-Carramore. Then you have Alan Dillon, Andy Moran, Seamus O’Shea, Chris Barrett.
“Keith Higgins is very very unlikely to play this weekend, we’ll just have to see how things go for him over the weekend in terms of his rehab for whether he’ll be available for Dublin the following week.
“So in that you are probably looking at 15 players.”
Keith Higgins is a potential return for Mayo before their second league game which comes against Dublin on 6 February. The three-time Allstar sustained a knee injury in a recent FBD League game against Roscommon but sustained no serious damage.
“None of those bar maybe Keith will play in the earlier part of the league.
“His (Keith Higgins) have shown up that there is no structural damage per se, but the boney bruising aspect of it is quite sore.
“He’s no longer the right side of 30 so you have to be careful with that and let it settle down.”
