Hickey must wait on O'Callaghan

another week of vigil outside the physiotherapist's surgery for Cork Constitution coach Brian Hickey. The Cork dentist, while having to proceed into the club's second final in three years without Lions player Ronan O'Gara, must also wait to see if his captain Ultan O'Callaghan has fully recovered from the broken knuckle which has already forced him out of the last four matches.

Hickey is also hopeful that winger Derek Dillion, who left the pitch in the last few minutes against Young Munster with a knee injury, responds well to treatment this week.

The three players' circumstances will force Cork Con to have a number of solutions prepared come the weekend. The likely moves will involve Conor O'Mahony moving to outhalf for O'Gara and the versatile John Kelly, who played on the left wing in the semi-final, moving to centre. If O'Callaghan does not recover, his younger brother Donnacha will remain at number eight, otherwise there will be a back-row reshuffle.

"Ultan is four and a half weeks into his injury next weekend," said Hickey. "He'll be much closer to being fit this week. Really, he had recovered well by the middle of last week but he wouldn't have had full power and going into a game like that . . . well, a player has to be fully fit."

"Derek Dillon hurt his knee and we took him off close to the end of the match and he's getting physio treatment. Hopefully he will be alright. At the moment some of the lads are involved in an Irish squad session, so we won't have everyone back until Wednesday.

"Sure, we'd prefer to be going into a match like this with Ronan but the reality is that the lads are quite used to playing with either of the players. I would think they have both played around eight games each. The team has played about 50 per cent of the games with Ronan and 50 per cent of them with Conor so it is quite settled."

O'Callaghan's fitness is of huge significance not only to the club but the player too. As the captain and a back-row player to whom the team look to for inspiration, O'Callaghan was also injured for Cork Con's 1999 All-Ireland League win.

"It would be brilliant to have Ultan back," says Munster and Cork Con winger Kelly. "Hopefully the match at the weekend was my last as captain. Ultan missed the final two years ago against Garryowen. He's a guy with a big heart and missing that day nearly broke his heart."

As things stand the probable team will largely be in place by tomorrow but O'Callaghan's position will be left open until the last moment, probably Friday or even Saturday morning.

Dungannon, who also have a number of players at the Irish squad session, report no significant injuries after the weekend.

"We'll assess things later this week," said coach Willie Anderson. "We'll be concentrating on rest and precision. No one is going to get any fitter in a week."