DERRY'S team manager Brian Mullins has been left with a severe selection problem following the enforced withdrawal yesterday of Dermot McNicholl from his. team to defend the National, Football League title against Donegal in Sunday's final at Croke Park.

Meanwhile, Donegal will field the team which beat Cork in the semi final which means there is no place for James McHugh, who is back to full fitness. He is included among the substitutes.

The selectors have, however, made one positional switch John Cunningham and JJ Doherty swap corner back positions.

McNicholl's defection from the Derry team, due to a damaged wrist sustained in training on Tuesday night, highlights a worsening problem for the title holders in relation to their half forward line.

None of the three half forwards who started against Mayo in the semi final will be in action on Sunday. The selectors have also been forced to wait for a report on Dermot Heaney's hamstring injury. Key player Heaney missed the Mayo match and is still extremely doubtful.

Only one player, Sean Lockhart, the teenager who replaced Gary McGill (out with a toe injury) in the second half of the Mayo match, can be named on the half forward line at this stage. Lockhart's selection at left half forward could be considered a gamble. He figured at wing back against Cavan in the quarter final and despite a brilliant colleges career with St Patrick's, Maghera, he has yet to prove himself as a wing forward at this level.

McNicholl was given the right wing spot, in a reshuffle, on the team announced by PRO Bernie Mullen yesterday, but the full extent of the damage to his wrist, accidentally inflicted by a kick, was realised yesterday and the player cried off.

Gary Coleman gets a call up for the first time this season and is given the unfamiliar position, for him, of full back in place of David O'Neill, who was rushed from College to hospital last week with a mysterious virus.