The Tyrone senior footballers are set to have their full panel at their disposal for their All-Ireland semi-final clash with Kerry.
The news comes after the semi-final was rescheduled twice due to a Covid outbreak within the Tyrone camp.
Joint-manager Feargal Logan confirmed that the full squad has been training together in the past few days and that a final assessment will be made on the fitness of certain players on Thursday or Friday night.
“There was a good period there where we didn’t have everybody on the training field at the same time but we have got to that point now which is helpful and positive and where everybody is physically present and they are out of isolation,” Logan told the Irish Independent. “We’ve got everybody together,” he confirmed.
The fixture was initially pushed back to Saturday, August 21st but Tyrone made it clear that they could not fulfil the fixture on that date so it was pushed back a second time.
The Ulster champions wanted to be as best prepared for the semi-final as they could be and felt that playing the game on August 21st would not allow them to do that.
One player in the Tyrone camp was hospitalised after contracting coronavirus with many others showing symptoms.
Logan is anxious about the possibility that close contacts could further complicate the inter-county side’s plans.
“Any phone call can take you out as a close contact, you’re very anxious with every call so until we get through to Thursday even Friday night, it will be hard to say.
“On paper, nobody is in lockdown but we still have players coming back and we have to assess them for the next couple of days.
“I couldn’t say to you that some boys you would like to start would be playing in Croke Park. Hopefully, it will be reasonable. Some of the rules around isolation have been lessened again up here.
“It has been partly close contacts but the reality of it was infection against a serious number of players and that was the difficulty,” he added.
The winners of the fixture will play Mayo in the All-Ireland final on Sunday, September 11th.
The final was also rescheduled twice in order to accommodate the winner of this weekend’s tie.
Logan made clear that the postponements were necessary as the outbreak within the squad had threatened the county’s participation.
The former Tyrone under-21 All-Ireland-winning manager also said that he was grateful that Kerry were as understanding as they were.
“It’s for real. We’re doing our best to get this gathered up. We don’t want to be making excuses.
“I hope Kerry have got the message from us. We would apologise that anyone would be put out but that was just the way it all happened and it developed that way.
“We couldn’t see any other way out of it and we appreciate what Kerry have done. The GAA deserve great credit too for what they’ve done. This could visit any community, any house.
“I wouldn’t wish it on any football team.”
