New York manager Johnny McGeeney has allayed immigration concerns ahead of his side's Connacht SFC semi-final against Sligo on Saturday week.

Following last Saturday night's historic penalty shootout victory over Leitrim at Gaelic Park, the Exiles can start planning for a second trip to Ireland in less than a year. Last June, their first appearance on Irish soil in 21 years ended in a heavy Tailteann Cup quarter-final defeat to Offaly at Glenisk O’Connor Park.

When asked by RTÉ if some of his players wouldn't be making the trip to Markievicz Park, the Culloville native replied: "My only concern is injuries. Out of the 43 lads that we kept on, 40 of them were able to go home [for the Offaly game] so we have no problem that way."

McGeeney revealed how the famous win had been four months in the making.

"I've never felt as confident in a team from when we got beat by Sligo and then we got the tanking off Offaly at home," he added.

"We gathered that night and we spoke and when we held our first training session...usually you wouldn’t do it until January but I said I'd go against it, and I went two weeks before Christmas.

"I just put out a message to see if anyone was interested and from last year, 95% of the lads returned and that was a big lift. I knew there and then."

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