Declan Bonner to shuffle Donegal pack again for McKenna Cup final

Declan Bonner has some fresh injury worries to content with ahead of Saturday’s Dr McKenna Cup final against Monaghan (Healy Park, 5pm).

Jamie Brennan, Tony McClenaghan and Michael Langan all limped out of Tuesday’s semi-final win over Derry.

In the case of Brennan, the Bundoran man was making his first appearance of 2022, but he left the action in the closing minutes of the first half of the 2-9 to 0-11 win.

McClenaghan and Langan, a 2021 All-Star nominee, hobbled off in part two.

The extent of the damage will be assessed at training on Thursday night. With the Allianz League Division One opener against Mayo just two weeks away, Bonner seems unlikely to take any undue risks this weekend.

“We’ll see how they are and we still have lads to come back in,” Bonner told Donegal Live.

“It’s a battle all the time and we’re hoping come the Mayo game that we’ll have as strong a team on the pitch as possible. We’ll need that. For now, it’s about recovery. The squad is definitely stretched, but we’ll know more on Thursday evening.

Donegal ease their way past Derry and onto the McKenna Cup final

Caolan McGonagle and Odhran McFadden-Ferry goals pave the way for victory for Declan Bonner's side over the Oak Leaf County

Caolan Ward, Jason McGee, Peadar Mogan, Conor O’Donnell, Ryan McFadden and Rory O’Donnell all missed Tuesday’s semi-final due to their involvement in the Sigerson Cup with Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

Bonner confirmed that the LyIT contingent will return to his squad for Saturday’s final.

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Donegal have won the Dr McKenna Cup nine times previously, most recently in 2018 when beating Tyrone 1-16 to 1-12 in Armagh.

“It’s another opportunity for players to put a hand up as we go into a really competitive Division One,” Bonner said.

“Now that we’re there in the McKenna Cup final, we want to go and perform and we want to go and get the victory.

“We want the performance levels to where we can and they gave been increasing over the last couple of games.”

Bonner’s roster has very much resembled a work in progress since the turn of the year given the volume of players unavailable for a variety of reasons.

First-half goals by Caolan McGonagle and Odhrán McFadden-Ferry netted the goals in Ballybofey on Tuesday night to book Donegal’s spot in the final.

It was certainly a useful outing for Donegal.

Bonner said: “We’re quite happy with the performance.

“The level of performances since the first night against Down has been progressing. We still have work to do and it’s very early days, but we’re happy with the victory and the manner of it.

“The goals came at the right time because we were kicking wide after wide there. We were playing really well and moving the ball well, but it was the final execution in terms of the shots. It wasn’t as if they were from areas outside the scoring zone.

“We could have put on a few more scores in the last 15 minutes, but in saying that we worked really hard and we emptied the bench. The work-rate of the team was excellent, starting up front with Charles McGuinness and filtering right the way back through the team. That’s vitally important.”