Paddy McBrearty to undergo scan on ‘knock’ picked up reveals Jim McGuinness 

Paddy McBrearty will undergo a scan to reveal the extent of a knock recently picked up Donegal boss Jim McGuinness has explained. 

Having sat out the previous loss away to Galway, the Donegal captain was again absent as his side seen off Derry 1-22 to 1-19 in Ballyshannon on Sunday.

McGuinness didn’t say what the exact complaint is and the expected timeframe for a return but the news on Peadar Mogan, who also missed the Oak Leaf win, was a little more positive. 

 “Paddy picked up a knock,” McGuinness explained.  “He’ll have to go and get scanned. He’ll probably be a couple of weeks with it, which is disappointing”. 

On wing-back Mogan, McGuinness added: “Peadar done the warm-up and he was a wee bit tight all week and we just said no, let’s make the change now. 

“He’ll be back training in the middle of the week not a bother”. 

McGuinness spoke at length at the weekend on the tight window between the end of the league and their Ulster preliminary round opener at home to Paddy Tally’s men, just a week later, on April 7. 

And he again reiterated the point that Donegal will plan their league run-in, final or not, around getting his squad in optimal shape for the start of the defence of their provincial title. 

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 “Again, we’re on the same conversation here: “Do we risk Peadar and put him in? If he goes in and pulls a hamstring, the Derry championship match is gone for him. 

“With five weeks on the bounce, we weren’t going to do that with him. He’s a very important cog. We have to be on the right side of it and we have to make decisions that are right for the boys, whether that’s Michael Murphy not going to Galway, keeping him at home to be fresh, that’s what we’ll do”.