Geraghty could be out long-term?

Graham Geraghty could be facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines despite his best efforts to feature for Meath this weekend. The 1999 All-Ireland winning captain was awaiting medical results on Tuesday. It is thought that the Achilles injury he picked up in training could be more serious than was initially suspected. It is understood that the Clann na nGael player received a pain-killing injection ahead of the Louth game in which he didn't feature. Bryan Menton will miss Saturday's game while Stephen Bray is optimistic about bouncing back from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the win over Louth. Kevin Reilly also missed that match with a recurrence of the back injury that has bothered him for up to two years now. "It's coming good and hopefully I'm the other side of it (the injury) now. I would hope to feature in some part of the game," Reilly told the Meath Chronicle. "We did a lot of training for two weeks before the (Louth) game and I probably did a little bit too much, I probably did the damage then." The O'Mahonys man felt Meath played better against Louth when they moved the ball around rather than taking the route one approach. A bumper crowd is expected at Pairc Tailteann for the All-Ireland SFC second round qualifier between Meath and Galway on Saturday evening, 7.0. The Meath players would do well to go into the game mindful of the lessons from the past when fancied teams from the Royal County took on Galway only to walk straight into a 'haymaker' and end up on the canvas. The best, or worst, example was 2001 when after defeating Kerry by 15 points (2-14 to 0-5) in the semi-final Meath went into the All-Ireland final against Galway as warm favourites only to lose out to John O'Mahony's side (0-8 to 1-7). Meath manager Seamus McEnaney said he was hopeful that Bray and Reilly would "get some game time." He is wary of a Galway "backlash" after the poor display against Mayo and compared the Tribesmen to Kerry in that they have talented forwards who can punish any side. Meath played a "full on" practice game on Saturday. Those encounters have become the norm at Meath training workouts as Banty feels it's important to reproduce as much as possible the tempo of a championship game. "Every night we're training we have those games and they would be full on all right, there's no holding back, that's probably how we've picked up a few injuries over the last few weeks, but that's life. You have to live with that if you have those kind of games," he added. Galway are looking to get their championship ambitions back on course after a defeat to Mayo in the Connacht semi-final. The defeat brought a barrage of criticism raining down on manager Tomás " Flatharta and his management team. The pressure is now on them to deliver big time. Entrance to Saturday's game is by payment at the stiles, prices for the stand are €15 for adults (u-16s free with adult) and €10 for senior citizens and students, terrace is €10.