Kildare pair to miss Armagh clash

Kildare captain Eoin Doyle and forward Neil Flynn have been ruled out of the All-Ireland SFC Round 4 qualifier against Armagh in Croke Park on Saturday.

Doyle played in Kildare's nine-point Leinster final defeat to Dublin on 16 July, just days after breaking his thumb in training, before undergoing surgery on the injury the following week.

"It's a measure of the man that he played for over 50 minutes in the Leinster final, even though he had broken his thumb," Kildare boss Cian O’Neill told the Times [Ireland]. 

"He refused to sit the game out and put in a stellar performance, considering the injury. 

"There were obviously some parts of his game that he couldn’t execute but that was far superseded by the brilliant things he did, marshalling that defence for large periods."

Flynn, who missed the early part of the season following an appendicitis operation in March, has also been struggling for fitness following a hamstring injury he sustained in Kildare's training camp in Portugal in May, but O'Neill is confident the Maynooth man will return in time for a potential quarter-final against Tyrone on 5 August.

O'Neill says Kildare need to lift themselves against Armagh after the disappointment of the 2-23 to 1-17 defeat to All-Ireland champions Dublin.

"We all agreed — players, management and backroom alike — that we were really going to go after the Leinster final," the Lilywhites boss continued.

"So we invested a lot of time, effort and sacrifice into it.

"But we have got back to work and it will be another mighty test."

Image: Inpho/ James Crombie

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