Aidan O'Rourke withdraws from Roscommon managerial race

Aidan O'Rourke has withdrawn from the race to become the new manager of the Roscommon senior footballers.

The Armagh native was widely expected to be ratified at Monday night's county board meeting. However, Roscommon GAA announced that the announcement would be delayed due to the incoming manager needing more time to finalise his backroom team.

However, on Tuesday evening the Connacht county, who are the only football side in the country who remain without a manager, announced that O'Rourke had withdrawn from the race to succeed Kevin McStay.

The statement read: "Our preferred candidate was Aidan O'Rourke. His team was to consist of Mike McGurn Strength and Conditioning, two Roscommon coach/selectors, and a head coach Karl Lacey.

"The reason for the delay was because of unexpected doubts in relation to Karl Lacey's availability as head coach. Unfortunately, this [Tuesday] morning the county chairman received a call from Aidan O'Rourke informing him that he was withdrawing from the process.

"The Roscommon GAA Management committee are very disappointed at the turn of events but are fully committed to completing the selection process. However, the committee is concerned at attempts that have been made to influence the outcome of the process over recent days. The committee believes that these events have undermined the integrity of the process and potentially affected our ability to attract a new manager.

"In addition, some of the public commentary on social media has been extremely unhelpful."

With the county championship having already reached its conclusion and the countdown to 2019 underway, many will be eager for the county board to find a new boss sooner rather than later.

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