Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has confirmed that a freak accident in the pre-match warm-up left the Red Hands without their captain Stephen O'Neill for this afternoon's Allianz NFL Division 1 final against Dublin at Croke Park.

The full-forward was a late withdrawal from the starting line-up after tripping over a football in the warm-up area in Tyrone's dressing room underneath the Hogan Stand prior to throw-in.

O'Neill was Tyrone's leading scorer coming into to today's final with 3-19, including four points against Kildare in the semi-final last time out.

"He was very unfortunate. It was a freak accident," Harte said.

The Tyrone boss recalled a similar incident which led to Sean Cavanagh not starting a game a few years ago.

"It reminded me of a few years ago when we were doing a warm-up inside and Sean stepped on a bottle accidentally and went over on his ankle.

"It caused us a lot of consternation at that stage. I think he recovered enough to play a bit in that game.

"Stephen was just doing the warm-up and accidentally stepped back on top of a football and went over on his ankle. He just wasn't going to be able to play. Just between himself and the physio he knew it wasn't going to work today."

Long-term though, Harte doesn't expect it will rule out his skipper from their Ulster Senior Football Championship clash against Donegal on May 26th.

"Early indications are that it wasn't a serious injury, just enough to keep him out of today's game. It would have been a renegade step to put him into the game today because he probably would have done more damage." Tweet

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