Carlow withdraw from O'Byrne Cup contest against Laois

Carlow senior footballers have withdrawn from this weekend's rescheduled O'Byrne Cup fixture against Laois due to "sickness, injuries and Sigerson Cup commitments", according to RTE.

Niall Carew's side were due to play Laois in Stradbally on Wednesday but it was postponed due to an unplayable pitch.

Carlow are the third county to pull out of an O'Byrne Cup encounter after Louth and Kildare failed to field for games.

Offaly manager Liam Kearns has since questioned the integrity of the competition as he told steaming service Clubber: "To be honest with you, I wouldn’t mind dropping out of the competition at this stage.

"We’ve had two hard games in four days. It will be a third game in eight days and our opponents have been sitting at home for the whole week.

"They withdrew from a competition here, they didn’t fulfil their last fixture. That’s the integrity of the competition shot as far as I’m concerned. If you enter a competition, you should have to fulfil your fixtures."

Carlow were defeated by Meath and Longford in their opening two matches of the O'Byrne Cup.