Dundalk face anxious wait over Sonni Nattestad red card appeal

Sonni Nattestad is shown a straight red card, which Dundalk have subsequently appealed.

Sonni Nattestad is shown a straight red card, which Dundalk have subsequently appealed. Credit: Peter Fitzpatrick (ETPhotos)

Faroese international Sonni Nattestad could also miss Saturday’s opener away to Sligo Rovers after he picked up a red card in last Fridays Presidents Cup’s win. 

Currently he is suspended but Dundalk will wait until later in the week to see if the results of their appeal is successful. Further to the situation, the suspension could be a one game, two game or three game suspension. 

On the injury front Michael Duffy and Brian Gartland have trained this week and could feature from the bench on Saturday but have still some more work to do yet. Cameron Dummigan is available while Daniel Kelly and Sean Murray are some time away yet. 

“Michael (Duffy) was involved in bits and pieces of training today which is brilliant, as was Brian Gartland so of the ones that were missing, they're the two who are going to make a real strong push to try and be involved. They may not quite get there. They could be fit enough to feature from the bench, or they could potentially start yet,” said Keegan.

“Daniel Kelly won't make this week and Sean Murray won't make this week. Cameron Dummigan is now 100% whereas he wouldn't have been heading into last week when we couldn't really consider him for a start, so I think they are all the ones where there was a grey area over,” added Keegan. 

The Bit O’Red have added Greg Bolger to their ranks and will have highly rated centre-half John Mahon, who is back from injury, as they hope to make another European push. Keegan and the Dundalk coaching staff have been keeping an eye on the preparations going on in the west. 

Speaking on striker John Kenny who has impressed over the course of pre-season, Keegan said, “Yeah, I don't know if excited is the right word I'd use when you're about to play against him. Wary is probably the word I'd use but yeah, he has been very good. There's no doubt about it that he has a fair bit about him. I have to admit I didn't know him before I started watching their pre-season games from this year but by all accounts, he has been banging them in fairly regularly over there for a while. He looks a real livewire, but they have plenty of quality.”

Keegan continued “(Romeo) Parkes coming back is obviously a huge addition to them as well because you looked at the loss of (Ronan) Coughlan and you were thinking for all the rest of the quality that they've brought in if they didn't have that focal point at centre forward then they might be in trouble, so he is a big addition to them. I suppose the key to them is if you look at how good (Greg) Bolger was under previous (Liam) Buckley sides. If he can get the same tune out of him again that he got out of him previously then he could certainly be a massive, massive addition for them.”

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