Lucey and O’Riordan miss crucial game against Down

DUAL players Stephen Lucey and Mark O’Riordan will be absent as the Limerick senior footballers attempt to climb off the bottom of Division Three of the National Football League this Sunday (2.30).
The Croom duo will be on hurling duty in Galway, as Down visit the Gaelic Grounds for Limerick final home game in the NFL.
Mickey Ned O’Sullivan’s side will continue their quest to avoid relegation with away games, to Longford on Saturday, March 28 and to Offaly on Sunday, April 12.
Influential midfielder John Galvin will return for the visit of Ross Carr’s Down - Galvin missed last weekend’s loss to Cavan due to basketball commitments.
Also back in contention will be Lorcan O’Dwyer and Ger Collins who both missed the game in Breffni Park with slight knocks.
Joining the dual players as an absentee will be captain Seanie Buckley who sustained a hamstring injury last Saturday night.
Full-forward Maurice Carrig is back in light training after a knee injury, but may not be ready to start.
While the Limerick team will not be named until closer to the weekend, Buckley, O’Riordan and Lucey could be easily replaced by with direct replacements in Collins, O’Dwyer and Galvin.
Others that could be in line for their first starts of the campaign are St. Senan’s duo Conor Mullane and Diarmuid Carroll and Ballysteen’s Pa Ranahan, who is back in full training after spending some months travelling in Australia.
Panellists John O’Connell and John Mullane could be others that Mickey Ned O’Sullivan, Joe Redington and Paddy Ivess may look to as Limerick continue to find scores hard to come by.
There is also a doubt about the availability of midfielder Thomas Cahill.
The Fr. Casey’s man received his second yellow card of the NFL in Cavan and Limerick are seeking clarification from Croke Park whether he serves an automatic two-week ban as a result.
While Limerick enter the game with just one win from four starts Down have three wins to their credit - losing only to Cavan at home.
When the sides met in last year’s league Down were 4-13 to 1-15 winners in Newry in a fixture that needed to be re-fixed after the first attempt was postponed due to fog.
On Sunday Limerick badly need to reverse that result to maintain their NFL status.
Two teams are to be relegated to Division Four - a scenario that Limerick cannot contemplate. While the previous system whereby Division Four teams did not part take in the All-Ireland Qualifiers has been changed Limerick are ‘too good’ to face the drop.

Jerome O'Connell