Cussen to miss Tipp clash

FOLLOWING his side’s eight-point defeat at the hands of Galway in the NHL final on Sunday, Cork boss Denis Walsh has another headache with the news that forward Michael Cussen has broken a bone in his hand and is likely to miss the Munster SHC clash with Tipperary.

The big Sarsfields clubman scored two points in the Leesiders’ defeat at Semple Stadium and despite picking up a knock, managed to finish the game.

However, a scan yesterday revealed the extent of the injury and he is now considered very unlikely to feature on May 30 when Cork face Tipperary in their Munster championship opener in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Meanwhile, Seán Óg O hAilpín admitted yesterday he was “destroyed” by Galway’s Damien Hayes in Sunday’s night’s defeat.

“I was beaten up a yardstick by Damien Hayes. He’s very quick and very skilful, and on his day he can do damage. Yesterday he was on his day and he destroyed me.

“Our second half performance let us down. We were four points down at half-time and had been competitive until then, but our performance dropped an awful lot after that.

“At the start of the second half, we needed to get the first couple of scores and we didn’t do that.

“Training had gone very well for us over the previous week, no complaints there. Everything was geared towards Sunday’s game and you couldn’t fault it. It was a national final, we said we were going to take it seriously and we did, but we just came up against a better team.”

O hAilpín, writing for Joe.ie, said Cork’s second-half penalty was the Rebels’ best chance to get back into the game.

“Patrick Horgan hit it high and hard. The goalkeeper made sure it went over but it looked like it was going over anyway. We needed that break to get back into it but it didn’t happen.

“You have to admire Galway’s performance. They were very good, from 1 to 15. On any given day, ten or eleven fellas will perform but all of their players were on form on Sunday night.

“They will go into the championship now with confidence high and give Leinster a good rattle.”

O hAilpín insisted he had “no complaints” about being taken off.

“From my own point of view, it was terrible. I was brought off 15 minutes into the second half. There were no injuries or anything, I was just misfiring.

“It’s just one of these things. I have to sit down and look at the video of the game. There’s no point sticking your head in the sand. I had a shite day at the office, I have to look at what went wrong and get back to the training ground. I have no complaints when I’m taken off for playing badly.

“Obviously it’s disappointing but you have good days and bad days, and it’s up to me to respond.”

The wing-back said their focus has now swung to the provincial championship clash against great rivals Tipperary.

“I know where I have to be. Our next big game is Tipperary in four weeks so that’s a bit of time and breathing space. We go back to our clubs now for the rest of this week and come back in next weekend, which gives us three solid weeks to prepare for Tipperary.”