Cillian O'Connor ruled out for season as Mayo manager James Horan confirms injury blow

Mayo marksman Cillian O'Connor will not feature for the westerners this season.

The championship's all-time top scorer sustained an Achilles tendon injury while in action against Clare last week, and manager James Horan confirmed the Ballintubber star will miss Mayo's summer campaign.

"Cillian is out for the foreseeable future. That will probably be the season," Horan said.

"It's a blow to Cillian obviously at a personal level. It is what it is. I suppose we're lucky in one way that we have a lot of players playing very well in training and as you know we have a lot of young players coming through so one of those are going to have to step up. We're looking forward to getting going and to seeing how it goes.

We have a certain way we try to play and key principles of our game. But look, we see what players are there and who is playing well and we tweak things from there. But the key principles of our game will certainly remain."

Subscribe to GAA alerts!

We'll send you push notifications so you'll receive all of the big GAA news!

Meanwhile, there is better news on the injury front elsewhere, with Diarmuid O'Connor, Jason Doherty and Brendan Harrison nearing returns.

"Diarmuid came off in the Clare game and is pushing well, he's very close," Horan outlined. "Jason Doc, training very well with us, so pushing very hard as well. Brendan Harrison, again pushing very hard, he has a couple of games with his club under his belt.

"The last two are some of the longer-term injuries we've had. So we have a pretty good group to pick from."

Just how big a loss is Cillian O'Connor?

The significance of O'Connor's absence was debated on Sky Sports' midweek GAA discussion show, Inside The Game.

"He is obviously [important]. 4-9 he scored in that All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary, it's ridiculous! That scoreline he put up would win most intercounty games," said Kieran Donaghy.

"So we know the undoubted quality he brings.

"There's no doubt that he's Mayo's talisman. He's everything they do, whether it's on the attacking front, or how he defends from the front and leads the line.

"He also brings a huge amount of edge to the game, which I love the most about him, and he's a real leader for them."

However, the former Kerry star feels there is an opportunity for Mayo to reshuffle.

"When you lose a guy like that, we lost Colm Cooper in 2014 to a horrific knee injury, there was a huge amount of doom and gloom around Kerry at that time," he recalled.

"The talk in the county was that it was a year in the bin. We'd lost Paul Galvin to retirement, we'd lost Eoin Brosnan, we'd lost quite a number of high-profile guys. And it was real doom and gloom. It actually galvanised the squad, and it galvanised Éamonn [Fitzmaurice] and the backroom team to introduce a few new guys into the squad.

"That's what Mayo have to look for now, and maybe change up their game. I've been a big advocate of Aidan O'Shea being more of a presence inside. Without Cillian O'Connor being a real focal point up front and with the amount of runners they have out the field, it's something that they might have to look to do is to plank him in there and build their game around Aidan, because he's that good of a player.

"But I don't think they've ever persevered with him enough at the edge of the square. With the mark, I think that's what Mayo have to do. Aidan is a real fans' favourite. And if he can lead the line the way they need him to if they're to win a Connacht and All-Ireland title, that's what they're going to have to do in my eyes."

Mayo get their championship campaign underway against Sligo on Saturday. Watch Sligo vs Mayo and Kerry vs Clare live on Sky Sports Arena from 3:30pm.