Down knew of Michael Langan absence and rejigged gameplan for that -Conor Laverty

Conor Laverty says Down had the inside track on Michael Langan’s ankle injury and travelled to Letterkenny on Sunday knowing the All-Star midfielder was out of action.

Langan rolled an ankle in training last week and while the rumour mill was in full swing early on at the weekend, Donegal boss Jim McGuinness confirmed after that it isn’t a long-term injury.

However, much more interesting was the fact that opposite number Laverty says he and his management team had gotten wind of Langan’s issue much earlier and that their gameplan for O’Donnell Park was tailored to that huge blow for the hosts.

As well as Langan dropping off the original XV named to start, Max Campbell and Shea Malone also missed out with Oisin Gallen, Ciaran Moore and Finnbarr Roarty all coming back into the mix.

But in the end, the visitors were full value for a shock 3-21 to 1-21 victory over the champions.

“With them making the three changes, we were very lucky we had preparations done for Michael Langan not to play,” said a candid Laverty after.

“I hope the lads is okay. We knew about it on Thursday and we knew Caolan McGonagle was going to go to Odhran (Murdock).

“So those changes didn’t really throw any curve balls our way. If we arrived today and 30 minutes out found out Michael Langan wasn’t playing, it probably would have thrown us.

“But, thankfully, we were well prepared for that”.

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