Jim McGuinness expects Donegal to have 'a full bill of health' for All-Ireland final

Jim McGuinness says talisman Michael Murphy is “100%” and Donegal expect to have a full stable to choose from in the All-Ireland final.

Murphy was withdrawn in the 45th minute of the 3-26 to 0-15 semi-final win over Meath on Sunday at Croke Park.

McGuinness believes he will be able to shuffle a complete deck of cards next week.

“All good,” the Glenties man told a pre-final press briefing at the Donegal GAA Centre in Convoy on Tuesday night.

“We’re hoping to have a full bill of health, Obviously a few men are sore, but nothing untoward.”

Specifically asked about Murphy - who performed a retirement u-turn last winter to reignite his inter-county career - McGuinness said: “Naw he’s good. He was a wee bit tight going into the game. 

“We didn’t want to take any risks. He’s 100%.”

The final on Sunday-week will be Donegal’s 11th Championship outing of the summer, but the Ulster champions appear to be in fine fettle at the right time.

Caolan McGonagle returned to feature off the bench on Sunday - his first game since making an early exit from a group stage defeat to Tyrone in May - while Jason McGee has also gained valuable minutes in recent weeks.

“We have played a lot of games back-to-back,” McGuinness said. “The fact that we had two weeks for the last game, we felt good.

“It is a privileged position now and we must embrace it. Two weeks is kind of bonus territory in what we have come through.

“We have sacrificed a lot to make that happen. There were a lot of evenings where we took the precautionary side of the road rather than pushing people on.

“We were in that situation during the National League and we tried to manage people.

“We’ve tried to manage minutes and not sort of veer to the risk side of the road with the view that we want to have people available as many people as available as possible.

“We want to have as many people available for a game as possible and we are in that position now so we are delighted.

“We were delighted to get over the line on Sunday. It was a long time coming around for us after last year; that was a hard one to take. We were delighted to put in a performance to put us in this position.”

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While Donegal are appearing in only their fourth ever final, Kerry are into their third final in four years and 63rd in total with the Kingdom aiming to win Sam Maguire for a 39th time.

McGuinness said: “We know what we’re going in against. Kerry knows their way about Croke Park and they know their way about an All-Ireland final more than anyone, except for maybe Dublin.

“The challenge is huge.”