gavin: we're good to go to go
BERNARD Brogan is "good to go," for Sunday's Leinster SFC final, Jim Gavin has confirmed and the Dublin manager also revealed that Denis Bastick is now back in contention.
Reports suggested a finger/hand injury could threaten the in-form St Oliver Plunkett's/ER man's involvement in Croke Park but Gavin clarified that Brogan suffered the injury prior to the Kildare semi-final in which he scored 2-3.
"Yeah that happened four weeks ago in a training game, two weeks before the Leinster semi-final so that's an old story. He's good to go, it happened four weeks ago so that's not an issue," Gavin stated.
Bastick, a revelation and ever-present during the League, missed the Kildare game with an ankle injury picked up in a club match.
But Gavin explained that the midfielder was back and he may now give his manager a headache ahead of tonight's team selection.
Nicky Devereux and Ger Brennan are the only confirmed absentees, while Kevin O'Brien - who missed all of last year due to a cruciate injury and related problems - is now available.
"We're close to full strength," surmised Gavin, who also moved to put to bed the recent challenge match incident that left Davey Byrne hospitalised.
"We spoke to both players and both players have had a chat in recent days together," Gavin explained.
"They both want to concentrate on their inter-county careers."