I‘m not sure this qualifies as news at all but RTÉ have a report this morning confirming that Aidan O’Shea won’t take any part in Sunday’s league decider against Cork and that his groin problem will keep him out of action for six weeks. James Horan had already said, in a piece with the Mayo News yesterday, that Aidan wouldn’t be playing on Sunday and so I’m not sure why I’m telling you about this RTÉ story at all. Maybe it’s just to provide further proof about how far off the pace the so-called national broadcaster can be at times, especially where it comes to Gaelic games.

The same charge can’t, however, be levelled at the Off The Ball lads over at NewsTalk (even if it can be difficult betimes to get them off the topic of soccer) where our freshly-minted captain was interviewed on the programme last night by Eoin McDevitt. Andy was his usual chirpy self and the interview was a good laugh with both participants clearly having at least one eye firmly fixed on what was happening during that extraordinary match at the Nou Camp.

Andy did, however, have something newsworthy to impart when he said that Trevor Mortimer may not have departed the inter-county scene for good and that he “wouldn’t be surprised to see him again down the line” even if he’s not going to be available this year. The full interview with Andy is here (it’s Part 2 of last night’s show and it starts at the 50 minute mark).

Not much else to report, apart from a few minor howlers in the nationals. Andy Moran won’t be too happy with the photo the Irish Independent have provided of him in this report (which also confirms that news about Aidan’s unavailability for Sunday) while, in this one, the Irish Times appears to think that groin = back. Mike Finnerty, meanwhile, has a howler-free piece covering the Andy/Aidan stuff in the Irish Examiner while the same paper also has an interview with Cork full-back Michael Shields.