Connacht football manager John Tobin admits it has been a struggle to assemble his squad for Saturday's inter-provincial semi-final against Ulster.

The Westerners are the current title holders, but will have to make do without a host of key players due to holidays, injuries and club commitments.

"Cillian O'Connor and Diarmuid O'Connor have both had surgery," the Galway man explained to the Irish Sun.

"The two Dalys from Roscommon are coming back from injury, and Keelan Cawley from Sligo is injured too. Brendan Egan is playing for St. Vincent's in the Dublin league final on Sunday and eight of the Mayo team are travelling away this weekend.

"We'll still have a nice team, but it will be a younger team (than last year's). My difficulty at this time of the year is that I have a large number of players gone on holidays. This is their only down time so it's very difficult in the present climate to get a window to play the competition."

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