Shefflin eager for return

It’s one of the lesser-known of his vast store of records but Henry Shefflin hasn’t missed a championship start with Kilkenny since 1999.

When you consider the setbacks he has suffered in that timeframe, including two serious cruciate injuries, both of which required surgery, then leaving aside the eight All-Ireland senior medals, the 10 All-Star awards, the scoring charts rewritten, that in itself is some achievement.

This year, however, there is a chance he may miss out on the Cats’ summer opener with a shoulder problem which required surgery before Christmas.

“I was back with the surgeon last week,” he revealed at Centra’s championship launch in Croke Park yesterday.

“He told me at the outset that it was going to be six months and he told me that again last week. He fixed the shoulder, I’m able to swing a hurl and it’s fine low down; it’s when I go over my head it starts to catch me. It’s a bit tight and sore over my head. I’m able to do a lot of the stuff down on the ground, pucking balls off walls and so on but I just wouldn’t be doing any major jumping or catching and stuff like that.

“It’s coming slowly but surely and then you can build up the strength and build up the contact.”

June 23 is the date of Kilkenny’s first championship game, a Leinster semi-final — will he make it?

“It depends on how I come back and when I come back. If I can get back a week or two earlier — it’s all going to go on timeframes. With long-term injuries, sometimes you feel you’re ahead of progress and next thing you’re back so it’s about hitting each target as they come along.”

But what of the long-term consequences of all those injuries?

“You would (be concerned) but it’s short-term gain at the moment. I do what I do because I love it. Long-term it’s something I’ll probably have to cross. To be fair, the knees are a bit funny and you have to mind them but I spoke to the surgeon about my knees and stuff like that and I am older now so no matter what, you’re going to have more aches and pains.”

“To be honest, it does make it easier I’m playing with Kilkenny and we’re successful. What I hold my hands up to is all the players who are playing in the lower divisions who suffer the injuries we suffer, who don’t get the profile but do the work and go back to play for the love of it.

“That’s part and parcel of it but it does make it easier because I can dream about the big days and playing in Croke Park and that’s my goal.”