Mayo U21 manager Niall Heffernan admits the loss of Diarmuid O'Connor to a black card against Galway was "a big blow".

The Ballintubber clubman was black-carded in the first half as his side fell to a 1-12 to 0-11 Connacht semi-final defeat at MacHale Park on Saturday.

"Diarmuid is a massive player for us but we've a panel of players," Heffernan notes in The Mayo News. "I haven't talked about individual players all year.

"It was a big blow to lose him for a pretty innocuous incident really. But that's the black card rule. It's there to protect players and we have to accept it.

"It meant a lot of re-organising for us and they had a big strong midfield so to lose somebody of Diarmuid's strength and power and experience was a massive loss."

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