Horan confirms O'Connor is ruled out of the championship for Mayo

Mayo forward Cillian O'Connor will play no part of the upcoming championship season.

The all-time record scorer for the championship sustained an Achilles tendon injury against Clare last week and Mayo senior football manager James Horan has confirmed Mayo fans worst fears.

“He had a procedure on his Achilles so there'll be quite a bit of rehab with it,” said Horan at the launch of EirGrid's five-year partnership extension with the GAA. “Cillian is out for the foreseeable future. That will probably be the season.

"It’s a blow to Cillian obviously at a personal level. It is what it is. I suppose we’re lucky in one way that we have a lot of players playing very well in training and as you know we have a lot of young players coming through so one of those are going to have to step up.

“We're looking forward to getting going and to seeing how it goes.”

Despite the huge blow for Mayo, Horan believes there are other forwards in the squad who can fill the void.

“Absolutely,” said Horan. “As I said it's disappointing for Cillian for sure but it's by no means a disaster. Cillian would be the first that if someone else is injured, you know, who is going to be the guy that's going to push up or step up or take it on, he'd be the first on that.

“That's the way it is. At the higher level, the level we're trying to play at, it's an opportunity for someone who has been maybe knocking on the door to go in there now. What a great role model they had in the way Cillian plays the game that they can learn from that.

“I'd be confident in what we've seen from training since. We have a number of guys pushing incredibly hard. So yeah, from every crisis comes opportunity or whatever.”

A big question for Mayo is who will step into O'Connor shoes for free-taking duties going forward. Horan has plenty of options at his disposal, but has yet to make a final decision.

“We have Paul Towey who came on in Clare and for the Under 20s for a number of years, a very good free-taker.

“Ryan O'Donoghue is a very good free-taker, Conor Loftus last year took frees for us as well, Jason Doherty was a free-taker as well, Darren Coen, so we have a lot of guys who are very high level free-takers. We'll see how things play out for team selection and take it from there.”

On a more positive note on the injury front, Cillian's brother Diarmuid will likely recover for the Connaught championship, although whether Saturday's game against is Sligo is too soon remains to be seen. Horan also confirmed long-term absentees Jason Doherty and Brendan Harrison are making good progress, with both players featuring with their clubs in recent weeks.

“Diarmuid came off in the Clare game and is pushing well, he's very close. Jason Doc (Doherty), training very well with us, so pushing very hard as well. Brendan Harrison, again pushing very hard, he has a couple of games with his club under his belt.

“They're some of the longer term...the last two are some of the longer term injuries we've had. So we have a pretty good group to pick from.

“The selection we have I'd be happy with. Obviously you'd love 100% selection but our medical are doing a fantastic job under crazy conditions in one way when you think about what they're going through to keep players (fit) in such a short season. So happy from that side.”