Cloonan and Cullinane opt out of Galway hurling panel

GALWAY hurlers Diarmuid Cloonan and Adrian Cullinane have withdrawn from the county senior panel.

Cloonan, a brother of Eugene, missed the All Ireland Club final in March due to suspension, but has impressed for Athenry in the county championship.

Pacy Craughwell star Cullinane has operated in a string of different positions for Galway.

Conor Hayes’ side start their All-Ireland campaign on June 18 and have played recent challenge games against Clare and Wexford.

John Fahey, secretary of the hurling board confirmed the players have departed from the panel for personal reasons.

“Both players have decided to withdraw from the panel. There are no ulterior motives here or anything.

“Diarmuid missed a number of important games through suspension and Adrian suffered a serious enough injury during the League. They’ve just decided to pull out at this stage.

“Training is going well at the moment. Galway played Wexford on Monday evening and while we were short seven or eight players, it was still a committed performance.

“All the players are hurling in intense county championship games at present. There was a round of games last weekend and there’s another series of games this weekend, so the players are very busy,” added Fahey.