Gaelic Games

Image source, Getty Images

Armagh captain Aidan Forker says his headbutting incident with Michael Murphy on the Donegal forward's return last year was a "silly act".

In February 2025, Murphy made his first inter-county appearance in 981 days as a second-half substitute in the Allianz Football League fixture.

Moments after Murphy's introduction, the pair found themselves in a pushing match before the Armagh captain headbutted Murphy in the chest and was sent off.

"There's no explaining it, really. It was a silly act and a rush of blood, or whatever you want to say," Forker said on the GAA Social podcast.

"It's on me. I'll take responsibility and it was silly, but it's well gone now at this stage."

Forker said it was "in the moment" and he remained off social media for six weeks, but his wife, Eimear, struggled with seeing abuse sent in the direction of the Armagh captain.

"It was a silly thing to do, it looked silly and there was a bit of aftermath there," he said.

"Apparently I took a lot of abuse online, and Eimear really struggled with that. I just walked off the pitch and didn't see any of the coverage. It is what it is, no one got hurt so it's fine."

No date on return from injury

Forker had surgery on his ankle in the inter-county off season and has been managing a back issue, so did not feature in the McKenna Cup or Armagh's opening league games - a win over Moaghan and a narrow loss to Galway.

The 33-year-old said his "body is generally feeling good" but he is not putting a time frame on his return to action.

"The hunger is still there to keep going," Forker said.

"I'm determined to get back, the boys are flying and I want to be part of that again.

"I usually like putting numbers on things but I haven't with us, I'm just going by how my body feels.

"I'm not saying it's going to be three, six or 12 weeks, I'm just going by how I feel."

Forker said he was always talking to Kieran McGeeney about his return, but the Armagh manager wasn't putting any pressure on him to rush his recovery.

"Last year I wasn't feeling myself and I was probably lying to myself.

"I wasn't useful last year, I wasn't myself physically. I wasn't doing anyone a service.

"The itch is still there but you have to listen to your body.

"Hopefully I'm on the right track and over the worst of it."

Stay up to date with all the latest GAA news and reports here.

Image source, Inpho

Donegal manager Jim McGuinness confirmed "it wasn't a difficult conversation" to convince Michael Murphy to return to county colours for 2026.

The 36-year-old came out of a two-year retirement for the 2025 campaign and played a crucial role in Donegal's run to the All-Ireland final and Ulster title success.

Murphy has not played since the defeat by Kerry at Croke Park last July, but returned in the second half for his team's Division One win over the Kingdom in Ballyshannon on Sunday.

"He had a surgery after the final and we've been trying to manage him and build him up from that," McGuinness told reporters after the game.

"It's been a long enough road since that. He didn't manage to play for his club in the club championship, and he's been building up, so it's great to have him back on the pitch.

"He was looking forward to that today, to get some type of a run out, and hopefully we can build his minutes in the in the weeks and months ahead."

With two wins from their opening fixtures, the Donegal boss was satisfied with his team's work and felt there were "a lot of positives in the first half in particular".

It is still very early in the new season and McGuinness reiterated his stance that he will use the league to "develop depth within the squad".

With football taking a back seat next weekend, the Donegal boss has two weeks to prepare his side for a home game against Mayo and hopes to build on their winning start.

"There's things to work on to be honest, but at the same time, it felt sort of comfortable enough for most of it (against Kerry), he added.

"It gives us four points, which is the most important thing of all. We can sort of now start to look at different things and different scenarios and more game time for different people as well.

"It's the second league game and we will focus now on Mayo. That will be a really interesting game, and a really good challenge for us. It's a home game as well.

"We only have three home games so we will have to try and see can we make that one count as well."

Odhran Crumley
BBC Sport NI Journalist

Image source, Inpho

Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney is expecting Galway to visit the Athletic Grounds looking to "lay down a marker" in Saturday's Division One clash between the 2024 All-Ireland finalists [17:00 GMT].

The Orchard County opened their league campaign with an eye-catching 12-point win over Monaghan at Clones, scoring 1-27 with 11 different players registering scores.

In contrast, Galway were beaten 3-18 to 2-18 at home by Connacht rivals Mayo in their opener.

Saturday's game is a repeat of McGeeney's crowning victory as manager of his native county when they beat the Tribesmen in the 2024 All-Ireland final to bring Sam Maguire back to Armagh for only the second time.

"It'll be a tough game too, games between ourselves and Galway, there's never much between us, it's always a point either way and they'll be coming to the Athletic Grounds to lay down a marker. We know what's in front of us," said McGeeney.

"I'm happy with the performance [against Monaghan], again I thought we probably had three or four goal chances that we didn't either put over the bar or we missed, but there's still a lot to work on as well."

McKay unlikely to feature

Early points on the board, especially from an away fixture, will aid the Orchard cause as every county strives to secure their place in the top tier for next season.

The turnaround between league and championship will be quicker for Armagh as they will face neighbours Tyrone in the preliminary round of the Ulster Championship.

"I don't know if there's much freedom, it's Galway next and they're going to be hungry for points, so every game counts, and score difference counts too as we found out in the past to our detriment," McGeeney continued.

"Galway are always a big game. I'm sure they'll bring plenty as well. Every game you play in Division One, everybody knows my feelings on it, I think it should be expanded and not reduced."

McGeeney also confirmed that Armagh are likely to be without full-back Aaron McKay against Galway after he was withdrawn before the throw-in last weekend.

"Aaron hurt his hand, so we're hoping it'll only be a couple of weeks.

"Just at this time of the year, it's such a compact season, you don't want to be taking chances and probably be pushing bigger injuries further down the line, so we're hoping maybe not next [against Galway], but the week after he'll be fit for it."

Image source, Inpho

Derry manager Ciaran Meenagh does not believe home advantage will have a huge bearing on Saturday's Division game against Tyrone at Celtic Park [18:00 GMT, live on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport NI website].

The Oak Leaf side host their neighbours and old rivals with both teams going into the game with a point to prove as they search for an opening win.

Meenagh's side fell to Meath in their opening game at Croke Park, but are back on home soil for this all-Ulster clash yet the Derry boss insists "it's not really an away fixture for Tyrone" who are used to playing at the venue.

"It's two neighbouring counties, so in terms of travel I don't think it will be much of an advantage for us," Meenagh told BBC Sport NI following Derry's defeat to Meath.

"We'll see how it goes, dust ourselves down and take the lessons from it [Meath defeat] and hopefully will improve.

"It's a big fixture but it's still January. It's big in terms of trying to get promotion, but overall there's bigger scheme of things."

Meenagh welcomed back Slaughtneil pair Brendan Rogers and Shane McGuigan last week following their club hurling championship exploits.

Both are still to get fully up to speed, but Meenagh feels that's true for every team as they build into the new season.

"Every team will be better after the first round, us included," he added.

"Playing games in other pitches with different conditions won't be as favourable as Croke Park is where the ball was greasy and it was windy, but that's winter football and I'm sure it will be like that for another few weeks."

Image source, Inpho

Antrim's National Hurling League Division 1B game against Clare will now be played in Cushendall on Sunday [13:00, live on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport NI website].

The fixture was initially due to be played in Dunloy, but the recent spell of wet weather with further rain forecast has resulted in concerns whether the surface at Pearse Park would be playable.

Instead, the game moves to the Glens where there are pitch inspections planned for Páirc Naomh Mhuire on over the weekend if deemed necessary.

Antrim will go into the game against the 2024 All-Ireland champions hoping to put their opening round defeat to Wexford behind them.

Davy Fitzgerald's side led by two points in added time at Wexford Park in the opener when a late free for the hosts was brought forward and rifled to the net by Wexford goalkeeper Mark Fanning to snatch the win.

Clare opened their campaign with a 3-18 to 1-22 victory thanks to a stoppage time goal from Tony Kelly.

The last time Antrim and Clare met was a league fixture at Corrigan Park in 2021 when the Saffrons claimed a 1-21 to 0-22 victory.