Bannigan laments Monaghan's 'staggering' attrition rate
Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan reflected on their "staggering" number of absentees as relegation from Division 1 looms following their 14-point defeat in Killarney on Sunday.
Last year's Division 2 champions aren't officially relegated yet.
Two wins from their remaining games, combined with two defeats for Galway and Armagh is one sequence of results which would see them retain their top-tier status.
However, every dot and comma of the form guide suggests achieving that would be beyond them in 2026.
In Bannigan's first year in charge, they had defied many gloomy prognostications, winning the Division 2 title in emphatic style and reaching the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
But hard times have hit this spring, with Kieran Duffy, Darren Hughes and Karl O'Connell retiring, while Killian Lavelle and Michael Hamill have missed the league with injury, amongst others.
They've lost five from five in this campaign, three of them by double-digit margins, with a total score difference of -55.
"It's a privilege for me to manage the Monaghan football team. We're going through a very difficult phase at the moment," Bannigan told RTÉ Sport.
"There were seven of the starting 15 [today] who didn't play in the National League for Monaghan before this year. And there was an eighth in Aaron Carey who didn't play until the final last year.
"So there was eight of the starting 15 who didn't play in the Division 2 league games last year. And of the 11 men we had on the bench today, only one of them had any experience with Monaghan prior to this year and that was Jack McCarron.
"So those numbers are staggering. We have 11 key men out injured at the moment.
"Hopefully we're going to get most of them back over the next six, seven weeks for the championship."
Despite the hardship of the present campaign, Bannigan is confident that Monaghan will be in better shape when the championship rolls around when his injured men return and the younger cohort have garnered more experience.
"The spirit and the camaraderie in the camp is very, very good," he said.
"I'm very happy that there's a real togetherness there. There's a lot of new fellas in this Monaghan panel that are getting invaluable experience.
"They're going to benefit from that. When we get these other men back, hopefully we're going to have a stronger squad for the summer.
Monaghan fell to their fifth successive defeat in the league in Killarney
"It's hard to see that light at the end of the tunnel at the moment when you're going through a very difficult time, going away to places like Kerry with such a battered squad.
"But we have to take the positives. We have to keep working. We have no choice.
"Our primary focus over the next seven weeks is absolutely going to be improved performances and getting ready for championship."
Monaghan trailed by a point after a low-scoring first half in Fitzgerald Stadium, having had the benefit of a gale force wind.
Inevitably, the game ran away from them in the second half, though Bannigan was inclined to rue missed opportunities in the opening 35.
He said: "The one thing we did get that we came for was a spirited performance. We were a point down at half-time but we were really disappointed because we felt we had the possession and the chances to go in a few points up.
"Second half was always going to be difficult playing into that wind. But even at that, we still created a lot of chances and just didn't take enough of them, missed a few two-pointers, missed a few single scores.
"We'd be disappointed with our attacking return but in terms of the spirited performance the lads put in, I'd be delighted with that."
Watch Galway v Kilkenny in the Allianz Hurling League on Saturday from 4.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
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