Flanagan emerges as Westmeath's main injury worry for Louth clash

With Fergal Wilson definitely out due to a cruciate ligament injury, Martin Flanagan has emerged as a major injury worry for this Sunday's Leinster SFC semi-final against Louth. Speaking after last Saturday's drawn challenge match against Limerick, Westmeath senior football manager Pat Flanagan said: "Unfortunately, Fergal Wilson is definitely gone with a cruciate problem, while Martin (Flanagan) is going to be struggling and we won't know until Tuesday night how he's situated. With the ground the way it is, there are a lot of ankle injuries. Kieran Martin, Conor Lynam and John Keane all have an ankle injuries. They should be ok, but it's always a worry with an ankle because you don't know how long it's going to take." Westmeath's starting line-up against Limerick showed six changes in personnel from the side which commenced in the Leinster quarter-final against Wicklow (including five of the forwards). Flanagan was quite played with the display in the work-out against Limerick. "The lads put a big effort into it and it was a big improvement on our showing against Longford on Tuesday night. We went down to an early goal, but we dug in and we battled away and I think we got our just reward in the end," the Clara man stated. From a situation where his predecessor Brendan Hackett seemed to find it difficult to field an actual team with sufficient talent for inter-county football, the return of four key players and the emergence of younger players has meant that the team no longer picks itself. Naturally, Flanagan is pleased with this transformation. "If you don't have lads battling for places, you're not going to have a good team. You can't have 15 fellows just walking onto a team, or thinking that they can just be comfortable in their positions. We have good men on the sideline and we'll use them to the best of our advantage. Today's game is after throwing the cat among the pigeons for a few positions, in a positive way. Look, it's not easy for us, but it's great to have that problem. It would be more difficult if I knew what the team was two weeks ago." Louth impressed the former Tyrrellspass manager in their unexpected quarter-final win over Kieran McGeeney's Lilywhites, but Flanagan felt that Kildare contributed to their own downfall. "Kildare struggled big-time. Their defensive formation was weak on the day. They were two yards off their men everywhere. When we played them in the league (under Brendan Hackett), Westmeath were six or seven points up in the first half. However, Louth put on some performance on the day (in Navan) and if we're not at the peak of our performance, we'll get it hard to beat them. "They're very strong in the middle of the park and they have excellent forwards and, even in the league, they were getting big scores. But if David Duffy plays like he played out there today (against Limerick), I wouldn't worry an awful lot about the Louth midfield. David has an awful lot to give, but probably just lacks a bit of confidence in his own ability. I think if he continues to progress and we can get a 50/50 share of midfield on Sunday we'll be happy enough." When quizzed as to whether he and selectors Paul Conway and David Mitchell knew their likely starting 15 for Sunday, Flanagan said: "We'll have to sit down and look at it and look at Louth's strengths, and try and create the team that's going to turn them over."