CODE RED HAND
Tyrone Covid outbreak sees final delayed
THIS year’s All-Ireland football final has been moved to September 4 due to a substantial Covid-19 outbreak in the Tyrone camp — meaning it will clash with Ireland’s World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan .
It is believed that more than a dozen individuals within the Red Hand County’s set-up have been affected, necessitating the rescheduling of their semi-final with Kerry to Saturday week, August 21 – the day before Limerick and Cork meet in the All-Ireland hurling final.
To allow the winners adequate time to prepare for the All-Ireland final, that has now been pushed back by a week to Saturday, September 4, the same day that Ireland play Azerbaijan at Aviva Stadium, the first game of Stephen Kenny’s tenure that they were due to play in front of home supporters.
The All-Ireland under-20 football final between Offaly and Roscommon, which was due to be a curtain-raiser to the semi-final, will proceed as
scheduled at 1.30pm in Croke Park with 24,000 supporters allowed to attend. It is the second successive game in which Tyrone have been affected by Covid-19. Joint-manager Feargal Logan and four of their players had to remain at home for the Ulster final against Monaghan at Croke Park. Tyrone officials have been in regular contact with Croke Park over the past number of days, keeping them abreast of the situation. It had been made clear over the weekend that the GAA were amenable to a request to defer the fixture, if there were a number of Covid-19 cases.
All the players underwent tests over the weekend and following the release of those results yesterday, it was confirmed that the Ulster champions would not be able to fulfil the fixture this weekend. ‘We would welcome the decision of the CCCC to postpone this fixture against Kerry for six days,’ Tyrone GAA said in a statement. ‘We will continue to comply with all the guidelines from the PHA and Croke Park, keeping the health of players and management as our primary concern.’ Even though the postponement has been granted, it still remains to be seen what effect it will have on Tyrone’s prospects of making the All-Ireland final.
Training had been significantly curtailed since the one-point win over Monaghan and it will be difficult to make up for the lost work in the extra few days afforded the squad. Kerry manager Peter Keane confirmed last week that he had a fully fit squad for the eagerly anticipated semi-final. The GAA said they will work with the LGFA around the TG4 Ladies All-Ireland junior final which has been scheduled for Croke Park on September 4. Meanwhile, the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship semi-final between Cork and Meath has been switched from Tuam to Croke Park on Sunday, as a curtain-raiser to the AllIreland U20 football final.