By Niall Gartland

CAVAN forward Paddy Lynch ‘won’t be in contention’ to make his return to the field of play for Sunday’s Ulster Championship opener against Tyrone, states manager Raymond Galligan.

Lynch sustained a season-ending ACL injury in training at the tail-end of last April, just days after playing in Cavan’s Ulster Championship defeat after extra-time at the hands of Tyrone.

The Crosserlough clubman had been in superb form up front for his county, and it was anticipated that he’d make a very welcome return in this year’s Division Two campaign.

He hit a stumbling block in his recovery, however, and his manager Raymond Galligan reports that Sunday’s game against Tyrone will come too soon.

“Paddy probably won’t make the first round of the Ulster Championship. We were hoping to have him back in the league but unfortunately he had a setback with his recovery and rehab. It’ll probably be another number of weeks so he won’t be in contention [for Tyrone].”

While still a miss, his absence up front has been off-set by the return of Gearoid McKiernan to the intercounty fold this season. A vastly experienced campaigner, he delivered a number of eye-catching displays throughout Cavan’s league campaign. Galligan is delighted to have him back on board.

“Gearoid has given so much to Cavan football over the last 15 to 20 years and we’re just delighted to have him back involved.

“I suppose he used that time away to take time and evaluate where he was at regards his body, and being away probably gave him the hunger to come back and just enjoy his football.

“He’s playing with that bit of freedom and I think the rules suit him, he’s a huge presence on the field with his shooting ability left and right from all angles, which gives him the capacity to notch the two-pointers that we saw in the league.”

He added: “It’s great for Cavan people and for the younger generation coming through as well, to rub shoulders with Gearoid, as no doubt they’d have looked up to him when they came through the ranks.”

Galligan also gave his take on why Cavan endured a poor start to the season, falling short of the required standard in their opening two league matches against Monaghan and Meath. Their form has improved considerably in the mean-time.

“We were a little bit stand-offish to put it mildly in the first two league games, whereby we didn’t put a big emphasis on pressing out and getting contact in.

“Monaghan and Meath both hurt us with two-pointers and we looked at that, and tried to improve as a forward unit as well.

“Our players knuckled down and dug deep and we saw that against Louth in round three, our backs against the wall and we got that victory.

“We knew we’d done a huge amount of positive work in the pre-season and it was just about getting that first win to start building momentum.”