All underage games in Offaly for the coming week have been postponed amid Covid-19 fears
Separately, the Edenderry senior footballers have been forced to isolate after a player tested positive for the virus last week.
Having been deemed a casual contact with his teammates, with whom he last trained on Tuesday night of last week, the HSE gave the club’s county semi-final against Rhode on Saturday the green light, with the player in question obviously not taking part.
Rhode won the game by four points after extra time.
However, on Sunday night, the HSE did an about turn and deemed all of the Edenderry players close contacts, meaning they then had to go into isolation as they await testing and results.
It also meant that St Patrick’s, an underage amalgamation of Edenderry and Ballyfore, had to grant a walkover Na Fianna for a scheduled under-20 game on Tuesday night though they look set to be granted a reprieve with the Offaly county board subsequently ordering all underage games in the county up to next weekend to be put on hold in any event.
The decision came as a result of at least two other suspected Covid-19 cases, one of them involving a player that trained with a county underage team over the weekend.
Given the potential impact that a positive case in that instance would have on other clubs around the county, it was decided to postpone all upcoming underage games.
Adult fixtures still go ahead as planned this weekend, with the senior hurling semi-finals among those down for decision.
But for the two-week shutdown imposed last month on Offaly, along with Kildare and Laois, the main adult football competitions in the county would be completed by now while the hurling finals would be contested this coming weekend.
In Donegal, Sunday’s senior football final between Naomh Conaill and Kilcar has been postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak in the latter club, while the county’s senior footballers were forced to isolate last week after a player tested positive, highlighting just how precarious the situation is for the GAA ahead of the resumption of inter-county games next month.
