Offaly GAA have “reluctantly” withdrawn from the O’Byrne Cup as the preseason competition lurches from one disaster to the next.
The Leinster tournament has suffered a spate of walkovers already putting the future of the competition in doubt.
Offaly’s decision means Mickey Harte’s Louth go straight through to next Friday night’s final where they will meet Longford.
Faithful boss Liam Kearns called the integrity of the competition into question after Louth’s withdrawal from their midweek encounter with Wexford.
The wee county had already qualified for the semi-final and the game was a dead rubber for them.
Kildare followed suit, pulling the plug on their midweek meeting with Westmeath.
Then the Laois/Carlow tie was postponed from midweek until the weekend before Carlow pulled out of the game altogether due to “sickness, injury and Sigerson commitments.”
Offaly’s decision means that four fixtures in the round robin tournament will now go unfulfilled.
An Offaly GAA statement said they were “unable” to line out in the Louth fixture, which was set for Dowdallshill.
Offaly say they requested a deferral of the semi-final until next Friday or Saturday, which would have meant putting the final back.
They say Leinster GAA were "willing to explore the idea,” but Louth were not agreeable.
Offaly’s statement continued: “Offaly GAA have a large number of players playing Sigerson Cup next week, and we also have a number of injured and sick players.
“Following consultation between team management, players and County Board we agreed that we could not field a team without asking a large number of players to play their third match in eight days in current conditions.
“Medical and player welfare advice were very much against this happening.
“Offaly GAA, our team management and players are fully committed to all competitions we enter and have really enjoyed the O’Byrne Cup challenge over the past week.
“However we cannot field a team this weekend without putting some of our players at risk of injury.
“We will commence a busy schedule of games in the National League on January 29 and this remains our primary focus at this time.”
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