Donegal have confirmed their withdrawal from the 2020 Dr McKenna Cup.

Declan Bonner’s team booked their slot in the semi-finals of the competition by virtue of last night’s 1-10 to 0-8 victory over Derry at Celtic Park.

However, given that the Ulster champions have over dozen players on Sigerson Cup duty this weekend, they’ve decided to pull out of Sunday’s fixture against Monaghan.

The following is a statement released by the county board tonight:

“CLG Dhún na nGall have formally written to the Ulster CCCC to withdraw from their scheduled Dr McKenna Cup semi-final next Sunday afternoon in Brewster Park, a decision not taken lightly and one which we regret having to reach but player welfare is paramount.

“Much higher than anticipated attrition of players due to injuries and illness, particularly a flu virus, has let to this regretful decision – at last night’s McKenna Cup match we were only able to tog out 23 players out of the possible 26 and three more players picked up injuries during that game and will be out of contention for the next fourteen days. From a player welfare perspective it would be wrong to ask them to tog out if not fully recovered.

“Donegal have 13 players involved in Sigerson competition games on Sunday and combined with injuries/illness we are in a position that we physically do not have sufficient fit players for the semi-final. Nor are we able to dip into our under 20 squad as the team is playing Roscommon on Saturday in the Leo Murphy Development Cup.

“We always hold the Dr. McKenna Cup in the highest regard, would very much like to participate in this semi-final and very much regret having to withdraw.”

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