by Paddy Hickey

Sligo football boss Cathal Corey has worries over the fitness of no fewer than five players ahead of his side's opening round Connacht Championship tie against London, at Ruislip.

With the tie against the Exiles fixed for Sunday week, Corey is unsure if he will able to call on defender Keelan Cawley, midfielder Niall Murphy, and forwards Paddy O'Connor, Pat Hughes and Adrian Marren.

"The five lads are carrying niggles with hamstring and knee issues and are currently doing their rehab with our strength and conditioning coach Aaron Kyles," explained Corey, who succeeded Kildare native Niall Carew in the Sligo hot seat last October.

"We hope that they will all be available for the London game, but we won't know for sure until much closer to Sunday week.

"Keelan Cawley picked up a knee injury just before half-time in our second last League match against Offaly, and a heavy schedule this month has played a part in the injuries affecting the other players.

"As well as our training sessions during the week, the players have been involved with four matches with their clubs during April," added the Tyrone native whose charges retained their Division Three status in this season's League campaign.

If the injured quintet receive the all-clear to line out against London, Corey will be largely basing his team selection on the players who featured during the course of the spring campaign.

"We won't have any players coming back that we were missing during the League," explained the Sligo supremo, who was unable to call on Brendan Egan and Mark Breheny, the long-serving having retired in the wake of last season's Championship campaign.

And unsurprisingly Corey was highly pleased that his charges didn't drop down to Division Four in his initial term at the Yeats' County helm.

"We introduced a lot of younger lads from minor and under-21 to the panel and there was always going to be a transition period before they found feet at senior level," he pointed out.

"So there was no point in setting unrealistic goals for the team and declaring that promotion to Division Two was a major priority for us.

"As well, this year's Division Three was probably the toughest ever with the quality of the teams that were in it - such as Armagh, Fermanagh, Derry, Longford and Westmeath.

"So, as a result, we were very pleased that we kept our place in Division Three," added Corey who previously worked with former Donegal boss Jim McGuinness as joint-manager of Donegal outfit Naomh Conaill.

In contrast to Sligo's retention of their Division Three status, London won only one of their seven matches in Division Three - a 1-16 to 0-10 second round success against Wicklow, at Ruislip. 

But despite London's disappointing League record, Corey feels that his side will have to be at their best to surmount the initial Championship hurdle.

"I'm sure that London will make it very difficult for us at Ruislip," stressed the Kildress Wolfe Tones clubman.

"Despite picking up just three points, London were very competitive in all of their League matches and they are very well organised and very well managed.

"As well, we are well aware of the fact that London came over to play Offaly at the weekend and they won that match by 3-9 to 0-10. So that performance will give them a lot of encouragement and confidence for the match against ourselves."

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