By Michael McMullan

DONEGAL have their fingers crossed midfielder Michael Langan can return to action sooner rather than later.

The St Michael’s man was forced off with a hamstring injury in the opening minutes of their win over Kerry.

Langan played a starring role on their run to the All-Ireland semi-final last season and carried his form into the 2025 opener against Dublin.

Speaking to Gaelic Life earlier in the week, Donegal selector Colm McFadden said it was a waiting game for scan results and a further assessment to the extent of his injury.

“The way the season is now, you don’t want to be out for too long because obviously we’ve got five league games in a row,” said McFadden, a clubmate of Langan.

“It’s week on week. We’ve two of them done with three more coming up. Then we’ve a week off before two more (league games).

“The next thing it’s going to be Derry in the Ulster Championship so hopefully it’s (Langan’s injury) not going to be long term and it’ll be shorter term.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what the results come back from the tests.

“He was very impressive in the game against Dublin and hopefully we can see him back in action soon.”

Based on Armagh’s gameplan, built on their control of Niall Morgan’s kick-out in the first half against Tyrone, Langan’s loss will be considerable on Sunday in Ballybofey.

In an interview with RTÉ after the Kerry game, Jim McGuinness confirmed Michael Murphy wasn’t injured but the management were assessing when the time is right to put him back in.

Donegal had added Murphy to the panel, with Eoin McHugh, Eoghan McGettigan and Odhrán McFadden Ferry while Finbar Roarty was available after not being eligible to play last season.

Roarty has played all 140 minutes to date with McHugh coming in off the bench against both Dublin and Kerry.

Neither Jason McGee or Niall O’Donnell have featured this season and McFadden spoke of the importance of patience when getting players back on board.

“Niall is close to getting back and Jason has the injury from last year,” he said.

“They are hoping to get back into the squad sometime soon. They are getting close to it, like Murphy and McFadden Ferry.

“They are training away and getting fairly close to getting back to game time, hopefully fairly soon.

“Eoghan McGettigan had bother with the knee a couple of years ago. He is back training but is trying to build himself up. It is hard getting built up for one season.”

Getting built up to the level for inter-county is the key and McFadden highlights the benefits of a deep squad, now more than ever.

“The importance of boys coming off the bench has been important in the two games,” he concluded.

“I can imagine that being the nature of the game for the rest of the year. Whether we get an extra sub or not, the boys coming off the bench will be important as teams get to the business end of the season.”