Mayo's All-Ireland hopes have been hit with a serious blow following the news that Diarmuid O’Connor is set to miss the rest of the season.
The team captain suffered a broken wrist in training on Tuesday night and is likely to need surgery on the injury, which will rule him out for the rest of the season.
The Ballintubber man skippered Mayo to the Allianz League Division 1 title earlier this year and this is another injury set-back this year.
The 24-year-old missed the win over New York in May after fracturing his eye socket in an accidental training ground collision.
Mayo face Armagh in round three of the All-Ireland qualifiers in Castlebar on Saturday at 7.00pm
Emerging midfielder Matthew Ruane was ruled out for the remainder of the 2019 campaign recently when he broke a collarbone in a training session.
This is added to the long-term absence of veteran centre-fielders Tom Parsons and Seamus O'Shea. Parson’s isn’t expected to see action for Mayo this year.
O’Connor’s older brother Cillian, his predecessor as captain, hasn’t featured for club or county since having surgery on a knee injury in late 2018 and he is said to be close to a return by manager James Horan.
Roscommon dumped Mayo into the qualifiers when they beat them in their Connacht semi-final. The Green Above the Red had a bit to spare in a potentially tricky tie with Down in Newry in their first game in the backdoor series last weekend.
They are at home against an Armagh side on Saturday who have been moving well this summer. If they do manage to win this they will be in to the final round of qualifiers against one of the beaten provincial finalists – Cavan, Cork, Galway or Meath – on the weekend of 6/7 July.
The winner of that round goes into the All-Ireland quarter-final Super 8s group stage and if Mayo make it that far they will be facing six games in a hectic seven-week schedule.
