Down manager James McCartan is resigned to being without his captain Ambrose Rogers for Sunday week's All-Ireland football semi-final against Kildare.

The Longstone midfielder suffered a cruciate ligament injury in a club championship game on August 8 and is virtually certain to miss the Mourne County's biggest game since they beat Dublin in the 1994 All-Ireland final.

"Ambrose is seeing a specialist this week and, to be honest, we're not expecting good news," McCartan said at a media briefing in Newry's Canal Court Hotel yesterday.

"Obviously, Ambrose is very important to us and there is that possibility you can tear on and take a chance.

"If you look at Dermot Earley's situation (the Kildare midfielder has continued playing with a cruciate tear), he is 32 and is near the end of an outstanding playing career and maybe this is one of his last chances. Ambrose is a lot younger and you'd be putting the rest of his career at risk if he were to continue playing. But we're preparing without him." Tweet

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