Tyrone joint-manager Brian Dooher says the Ulster champions are open to the possibility of returning to the championship should the GAA enable it.

Huge news dropped this afternoon when the Red Hands confirmed that they would not be fulfilling their All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Kerry next Saturday on the back of medical advice.

The Tyrone camp has been rocked by a number of positive Covid-19 cases over the past week or so, which saw their original semi-final fixture against the Kingdom postponed from tomorrow to August 21st.

Tyrone county board confirmed today that they would not be fulfilling the game next Saturday and, speaking on Off The Ball earlier, Dooher said that it was “ultimately Croke Park’s decision” whether there could be another rescheduled fixture.

"That's ultimately Croke Park's decision, that's not our decision," joint-manager Brian Dooher told OTB Sports. "The decision we made today was due to the medical advice from an eminent person that gave us this report.

"I think it is time ultimately that the experts in that area should talk to each another, from Croke Park and from Tyrone GAA and see what's the right thing to do by these players.

"These players have put in a hell of an effort this year in a very challenging environment and it is disappointing that it has come to this."

On whether or not Tyrone GAA will make a request to reschedule the game for a second time, Dooher added: "We'll ask the GAA to look at it again surely, but we are talking about the GAA's decision at the end of the day and we respect that.

"We just had to make this decision today from a player welfare point of view."

🗣️ 'It's ultimately the GAA's decision, it's not our decision.'

🗣️ 'We'll ask the GAA to look at it again surely.'

Tyrone joint-manager Brian Dooher spoke to OTB Sports after it was announced the county would not field a team against Kerry | #GAA pic.twitter.com/VrJIa3HHNk

— Off The Ball (@offtheball) August 14, 2021

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