Mayo duo Diarmuid Duffy and Cillian O’Connor are facing a race against time to be fit for Sunday week’s All-Ireland SFC final against Kerry.

Andy Moran described the pair as ‘touch-and-go’ when speaking at the Mayo All-Ireland final press event in Castlebar on Monday. Duffy sustained a shoulder injury in training before the semi-final victory over Louth, while veteran forward O’Connor has suffered a setback in his recovery from injury.

“Diarmuid Duffy hurt his shoulder last week in training, so that is why he was out of the squad. Will he be okay for the final? Touch-and-go, but hopefully because we want him in the squad,” the Mayo manager explained.

“Paddy (Durcan) and Diarmuid (O’Connor) were back in last week. Darren McHale is obviously out; he is not going to get back for the season. Cillian (O’Connor) is touch-and-go again. We thought he was back and then he got a tiny bit of a setback. He is trying hard, but there are no guarantees.”

Meanwhile, Moran feels the introduction of goal-line technology is inevitable after last Sunday’s Dublin-Kerry semi-final was overshadowed by a number of controversial refereeing decisions.

“We’ve made huge progress over the last couple of years in Croke Park with HawkEye and I think that’s just going to go to goal-line [technology] and square balls,” he said.

“I think it would take a very minimal amount of time to do that, and to be honest with you, we could dance around it but by the time the championship comes around next year, there’ll be goal-line technology. I don’t think they’re going to make that mistake again.”

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