Lohan loss at least short-term

News round-up: As expected, Brian Lohan misses out on tomorrow's final phase two match in the National Hurling League when Clare…

News round-up: As expected, Brian Lohan misses out on tomorrow's final phase two match in the National Hurling League when Clare travel to Cork with the chance of a place in next month's final.

Lohan pulled his hamstring in a challenge match with the under-21s and is unavailable, although concern in the county has eased a little concerning his prospects for the championship opener against Waterford on May 19th.

The team shows a number of changes from the one beaten in a late charge by Limerick a week ago and will be captained by Seán McMahon.

Waterford name the same side that defeated Cork for the trip to Thurles to play Tipperary. A few positional switches have been made although the actual positioning of the team is never clear until match day. The main thing for Justin McCarthy as his side chase a place in the final is that Tony Browne and Paul Flynn, who were both injury doubts earlier in the week, trained last night and are fit to play.

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Tyrone make one change for Sunday's National Football League semi-final replay with Galway at Pearse Stadium. The goalkeeping position passes from John Devine to Paschal McConnell, a rotation that manager Mickey Harte has used before including in last year's championship.

A vacancy has been left at corner back to give Ciarán Gourley time to recover from a calf muscle injury sustained in the drawn tie.

Conor Gormley starts at full back, having impressed when switched from the corner to successfully shadow Pádhraic Joyce at Omagh last week.

And up front, Owen Mulligan, who started in the half forward line last week, reverts to full forward in a direct swap with Enda McGinley.

Galway have deferred selection until the day of the match because of doubts over several players. Declan Meehan has an injured ankle and is considered unlikely to play, Kevin Walsh is definitely out and Matthew Clancy is sitting final engineering exams on Monday and may opt out.

Darragh Ryan is a shock omission from the Wexford hurling team for their Division One relegation battle with Dublin in Wexford Park on Sunday.

Also dropped to the substitutes are team captain Michael O'Leary, Rory Stafford, Ken Furlong and Michael Jacob.

Into the team come John O'Connor, Rory McCarthy, Tomás Mahon, Donal Berry and Larry Murphy.

Peter Donohue, immortalised by Arthur Daly of the New York Times as the "Babe Ruth" of Gaelic football following his display against Kerry in the famous Polo Grounds All-Ireland final in 1947, has died. He also played on the losing teams of 1945 and 1949 - playing at full forward on each team - and was on the panel in 1952.

Seventy-nine this year, he was living in Kingscourt.

A five-member committee has been set up by the Wicklow County Board to conduct an investigation into a row at a match that resulted in a spectator being attacked.

The committee will inquire into the flare-up at a minor hurling match between St Patrick's from Wicklow town and near neighbours Glenealy last Sunday.

As a result of the sideline row, a spectator and former county player, Paul Byrne from Glenealy, was beaten on the ground with hurleys and the windows of his car were smashed while two of his small children were inside the vehicle.

Seán Moran

Seán Moran

Seán Moran is GAA Correspondent of The Irish Times