Kerry have suffered a major blow as Tony Brosnan has been ruled out of the All-Ireland final this Sunday against Dublin.
The Kerry attacker is struggling with a recurrence of a respiratory condition, and has now been ruled out of contention meaning that Jack O'Connor cannot call upon him this weekend.
The lung problem caused him a problem in the past, as it forced him to miss the latter stages of Dr Crokes club campaign a few seasons ago.
The Dr Crokes star has been in an out of the starting line-up but almost always features at some stage, and is a real handful for opposition defences to deal with.
Squad depth is becoming more and more important in Gaelic football, you only have to look at the likes of Stephen O'Brein who came off the bench against Derry for The Kingdom, and changed the game for them.
Teams like Cork deliberately keep one of their star forwards, Stephen Sherlock or Brian Hurley, on the bench, knowing that they will spring them to action when the game is in the melting pot and at its most important.
Monaghan deploy a similar tactic, either benching Conor McManus or Jack McCarron, with the view that they could win the game for them in latter stages.
With this option now eliminated, and Dublin's bench so powerful, featuring the likes of Jack McCaffrey, Ciaran Kilkenny or Dean Rock, Kerry are going to need as much firepower as possible.
The good news is that Killian Spillane has returned from injury and is now available for selection after missing the semi-final against Derry.
O'Connor has until the end of today to name his match-day 26, so it will be interesting to see who he calls upon, while Dessie Farrell has his own concerns with the likes of Sean Bulger being a doubt. Related links:
