Kildare clash may come too early for Mayo ace O'Donoghue's return

Mayo manager James Horan is uncertain whether or not star forward Ryan O'Donoghue will be ready to return from injury to face Kildare in the second round of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers at Croke Park on Saturday (6 p.m., live on Sky Sports).

He explained: "The extra week will help. With a groin injury, however, you just don’t know."

Regarding injuries generally, Horan noted that many players had returned to action for the Monaghan game and added that the longer Mayo stay in the championship, the more will come back into the reckoning.

"Beating Monaghan gives the players an extra week and those who didn’t make the match day panel last Saturday will be back in contention for next weekend," he said.

The manager admitted there are some areas they have to work on.

"While we might have started slowly, once we got our hands on the ball we moved it well and Cillian’s (O’Connor) penalty and a few frees helped us settle down into the game.

"But we should have been further ahead coming towards the end. In the first 15 or so minutes of the second half we made a lot of mistakes.

"We had loads of possession and while we did a lot right, the hop of the ball went against us on a few occasions as well as taking the wrong option at times.

"Towards the end of the game we invited Monaghan on to us. A few of our kick-outs didn’t go well as we got stuck in our own corner.

"We invited Monaghan on to us and were probably lucky to get away with the goal chance to them. As a result, we left Monaghan in with a chance – but thankfully we got through in the end.

"We got a couple of breaks. There could have been a few decisions that could have gone against us.

"I thought the black card early on for McManus was harsh. And their penalty claim wasn’t a lot different to the one we got.

"However, I feel we were the better side and deserved to win the game," he stated.