Tyrone blow as Bradley ruled out of Carlow clash

TYRONE suffered a blow last night with the news that playmaker Mark Bradley has suffered a setback in his recovery from an ankle injury and will miss Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC Qualifier at Netwatch Cullen Park.

Bradley limped off early in the Ulster Championship first round defeat to Monaghan last month, and missed the Qualifier win over Meath, but had been expected to return to action against Carlow.

Top scorer Lee Brennan will also be absent from the Tyrone attack, not fully recovered from a hamstring injury that he aggravated against Monaghan

Manager Mickey Harte revealed that Bradley has had difficulties in getting back to full training.

“We hope that it will improve after this, but it has been more of a struggle than we thought at first, unfortunately he won’t be ready, Lee won’t either,” he said.

But Tyrone will welcome back Peter Harte, who returns after suspension, while corner-back Cathal McCarron, who missed the extra-time win over Meath at Páirc Tailteann with a chest infection, is set to return to the defence.

A weakened Tyrone just scraped through against the Royals, but Harte was encouraged by the impact made by a number of players who seized their opportunity, including Harry Loughran, who marked his championship debut with a goal, while Cathal McShane showed nerves of steel in scoring a stoppage-time point to send the tie to extra-time.

“A lot of things happen on the day that are all good on the day when you win. We could have lost the game just as easily, and then all those things would have been of no value to us,” said Harte. “We have to make sure that we make the new experiences that some of those boys had on that day work to our advantage.”