Galway’s star full-forward Damien Comer led the tributes to Mayo’s Tom Parsons who suffered a horrific injury in the sides’ Connacht SFC quarter-final on Sunday.
While the Tribesmen defeated their biggest rivals for the third year in a row, last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists will once again have to navigate the qualifiers.
Galway edged the battle of attrition 1-12 to 0-12, backing up an impressive spring campaign which saw them reach the final of the National League.
The back door is a familiar path for Mayo in recent seasons, however, before they begin their All-Ireland Championship campaign, immediate attention is on Parsons who dislocated his knee in the second half of the game.
Another Galway legend, Padraig Joyce, also wished the Mayo man well in what unfortunately looks like a long road to recovery.
An injury time goal from Johnny Heaney ensured that Kevin Walsh’s men progressed to the provincial semi-final where they will play Sligo.
A Connacht title would see Galway progress to the inaugural Super 8s, while the defeat in Castelbar means that Stephen Rochford’s Mayo will now need to string four wins on the bounce to progress to the round robin series.
Galway will face the Yeats county for a spot in the Connacht final on June 3 while Mayo kick off their qualifier campaign the following weekend.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
