The Championship

Plenty of Dubs breathed a sigh of relief when Alan Brogan was named in the Dublin team to face Mayo yesterday, but all may not be as it seems within the Dublin camp.

The presence of last season’s Footballer of the Year would be a massive boost for the reigning All-Ireland Champions, who have suffered ever since Brogan picked up a groin injury in the Leinster Final victory over Meath.

The Dubs attack has looked shapeless since he’s been gone with younger brother Bernard in particular struggling without the accurate delivery of Alan from the half-forward line.

Brogan has been named to start alongside Bernard and Diarmuid Connolly in the full-forward line tomorrow, but a report in The Sun this morning suggests that there is a good chance he won’t feature against the Connacht Champions.

Although the headline on the red-top's front page, ‘Brogan Out’ is more than a little misleading, a report on the back page suggests that he will have to prove his fitness in a fitness test at Dublin’s training base in St. Clare’s this morning, despite having reportedly played in a number of internal training games in recent weeks.

In the quarter-final victory over Laois, Brogan had been named to start but was replaced by Connolly at the last-minute and such is the second-guessing that goes on with all GAA team announcements these days, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he starts on the bench or doesn’t feature at any stage given that he is bound to be feeling the effects of an absence that dates back to the middle of July.

If Brogan doesn’t feature, his loss to Dublin would arguably be as big as Andy Moran’s loss is to Mayo and would go some way to level the playing field in a game that has already been decided according to some pundits.

We won’t know the whole story about Brogan until around 3pm tomorrow, but expect the speculation, the gossip and the rumour mill to go into overdrive between now and then.