Kalum King is expected to resume his customary midfield role for Down in their Dr McKenna Cup third round clash with St. Mary's at Pairc Esler tonight.

The Byransford colossus has been named at right half forward, but the expectation is that he will operate around the middle alongside Ambrose Rogers and Conor Gough - just as Dan Gordon had done to great effect in the Mourne County's previous two outings against Armagh and Monaghan. The move is somewhat surprising after his excellent showing at full forward against Monaghan who he scored two first half goals against last Sunday.

Down boss James McCartan believes his side are in a much stronger position than they were this time last year thanks to measures taken during the off-season.

He told the Irish News: "We had 14 injured players when we came back last January. We weren't even aware that some of them were injured. That was maybe naivety on my part because we should have ensured that the players informed us that they were injured.

"Prior to Christmas, we placed an emphasis on injury prevention work. We want to clear those things up. The buzz word is 'prehab', which is obviously better than rehab."

Down (SF v St. Mary's): B McVeigh; N Brannigan, D Turley, K Anderson; N McParland, M Doran, D McKibben; A Rogers, C Gough; K King, M Poland, D Hughes; J McAreavey, A McConville, E McCartan. Tweet

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