ANTRIM will have to absorb the twin losses of their first-choice goalkeeper and full-back ahead of tomorrow’s Ulster Championship showdown with Cavan at Corrigan Park.
It is understood Ricky Johnston has opted off the panel and is heading to play football in America, while his Kickham’s Creggan team-mate Oisin Kerr exited after Antrim’s last NFL game against Westmeath.
Both are significant losses to manager Enda McGinley as Antrim prepare for their first home fixture in the provincial series since 2013.
Johnston has started every NFL game at full-back this season and seemed the perfect fit to man-mark Cavan danger man Paddy Lynch who scored two goals in the Division Four final win over Tipperary at Croke Park earlier this month.
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Now McGinley will have re-think his defensive plans with captain Peter Healy of St Enda’s, Glengormley a possible option to shadow Lynch.
Oisin Kerr played in all of Antrim’s Division Three games this season, bar the last one against Westmeath, where O’Donovan Rossa clubman Michael Byrne was given some game-time in goal.
Byrne was McGinley’s first choice when he took the reins in 2021 before Luke Mulholland and Oisin Kerr forced their way into the manager’s thinking.
Mulholland departed the Antrim set-up earlier in the campaign. Veteran St Gall’s ‘keeper Chris Kerr, who has made two remarkable recoveries from cruciate injuries, answered McGinley’s call and is likely to act as back-up to Byrne at Corrigan Park tomorrow afternoon.
The losers of tomorrow’s provincial clash will enter the inaugural Tailteann Cup which gets underway at the end of next month.
On the issue of inter-county players considering playing football in the States this year, a GAA spokesperson said: “A player who has been included on an Inter-County Championship list submitted to the referee, whom is eligible for a J1 visa - such a player may only have his J1 sanction approved once his team has been eliminated from the Inter-County Championship including All-Ireland Qualifier games and Tailteann Cup.”
They added, however, that the New York jurisdiction differs and a player can go at any time to play there with no J1 visa required.
