Central Hearings Committee make final decision on Conor McManus suspension

His appeal was heard on Thursday night.

The Monaghan forward was sent off in last weekend's draw against Armagh at the Athletic Grounds in their Division One league tie. The county stalwart was shown a straight red by referee Barry Cassidy, for an off the ball incident, that wasn't clearly captured by the cameras in live time. The BBC, who were live streaming the match on iPlayer, wasn't able to catch any clear footage of the incident as it happened in the goalmouth area, while the ball was in play elsewhere. On RTE's Sunday Game programme, they managed to scrape some footage of the incident, albeit slightly blurred, and a little off screen, but it appeared that McManus pushed the Armagh player, and it was not a striking action. This was obviously the conclusion that the Central Hearings Committee came to as well, because they have now rescinded the red card. This means that the seasoned shooter will now be available for selection against Kerry at home, in a crucial game for the Ulster side. With two draws and a loss under the belts, the Farneymen need to start racking up wins if they want to avoid fighting in a relegation battle from Division One. Kerry however, are currently in flying form. After a sticky start away to Kildare in the opening game where they only came away with a draw, they have since beat Dublin and Donegal convincingly. David Clifford who came off the bench last week against Declan Bonner's side, and scored a bizarre long-range goal, and hit the crossbar to deny him his second in a short space of time. His position on the bench was largely down to the fact he had played in the Sigerson Cup final just days before, so it is likely he will back in the starting 15 against Monaghan. With both team's top shooters locked, loaded and ready to fire this weekend, we are in for an interesting tie.