Tyrone resigned to facing Kerry without McKernan

Tyrone are resigned to being without defender Michael McKernan for Saturday's All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Kerry (live on RTÉ2/Player).

The Coalisland wing-back suffered a shoulder injury against Cavan in the final game of the group stages and selector Colm McCullagh said that "Unless there is a major improvement in the next couple of days it is looking very unlikely" he will face the Kingdom.

"Michael is improving, he is coming on, but this weekend will be too soon for him," said McCullagh at a Tyrone press event last night.

"He’s doing a bit of running stuff, but no contact up to now. If he were to miss the game, obviously it’d be a huge blow for Tyrone’s chances. He’s probably one of Tyrone’s most consistent performers this season.

"He’s going really well. He really was carrying the game to teams and was getting us out and driving us forward and chipping in with scores and stuff and doing well in his defensive duties as well.

"It’d be a major loss but again, it’s an opportunity for somebody else to step up and we’re going to need that."

However, McKernan's fellow defenders Peter Teague and Rory Brennan are expected to be fit, despite picking up injuries during the quarter-final win over Dublin, while forward Mark Bradley is also available having missed that clash and the Cavan game three weeks ago. Teague replaced McKernan at right-half back against the Dubs.

The Red Hands beat Kerry in their last semi-final meeting, on the way to lifting Sam Maguire four years ago.

But McCullagh insists they are "down as underdogs" this weekend.

"I suppose our performance against Dublin the last day wouldn’t have been as impressive as what Kerry was against Armagh.

"We feel there’s a lot of room for improvement as well on our performance from the last day so we’re just hoping that can be the case. We know we’re going to have to improve on what we’ve shown to date to beat this Kerry team."

Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship semi-finals with RTÉ Sport. Kerry v Tyrone on Saturday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player and Meath v Donegal on Sunday from 3.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.

Follow live blogs on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentaries on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game at 10.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.

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