Brian Dooher has dampened expectations that he may be ready to play for Tyrone against Armagh in the Ulster SFC on 31 May.
Dooher missed the entire NFL campaign after undergoing groin surgery in November, and only returned to action with his club Clann na nGael a couple of weeks ago.
Dooher was re-appointed Armagh captain on Tuesday and manager Mickey Harte gave him a 50-50 chance of making the Championship opener, and although Dooher thinks this is a bit optimistic, he said that he wasn’t far away from being ready.
Dooher told said in today's Examiner: ‘There’s no point in feeling sorry for your self. It does get frustrating, but at the same time your intention is to get back – you just keep plugging away.
‘But it does take a long while to get your match fitness and match sharpness. You can only get that by playing matches and training and if you can’t, you won’t get back to that level.’
As for the challenge of Armagh? ‘We’re definitely not the in-form team. We have a lot of work to get ourselves up to the required standard. Armagh are going to be a very stiff challenge, even though it will be a different team in some respects.’
