Gamble on shutdown of O’Shea

STEPHEN ROCHFORD should take the gamble of his managerial career and drop Aidan O’Shea for the qualifiers to allow the former All-Star regain his full fitness, says former Mayo AllStar Billy Joe Padden. O’Shea has yet to start a game for Mayo in an injury-dogged season, where he has been sidelined first by an ankle injury sustained playing basketball and subsequently a groin injury. And Padden believes that if Mayo are to get the best out of O’Shea in the All-Ireland series they have to risk reaching that stage without playing him. ‘The problem with Aidan is that he is injured,’ says Padden. ‘It is only dawning on himself and the squad how serious his injury is. At this level you have to be training and he has not done enough training. ‘I would love to see a situation where you could line him out at midfield but I don’t see that happening. ‘To get the best out of Aidan O’Shea, Stephen should shut him down for a couple of weeks and hope that you are still in the Championship when he comes back in better shape.’