Galvin worry for Limerick

LIMERICK football boss Maurice Horan is sweating on the availability of star midfielder John Galvin ahead of their Munster championship opener on June 4th after he sustained a blow to his knee in a challenge match against Down on Sunday.

It is understood that Galvin has not suffered cruciate damage but the injury is still regarded as serious. Dual defender Stephen Lucey is another injury worry for Limerick for that tie against the winners of Sunday’s quarter-final between Kerry and Tipperary.

“We are awaiting the results of an MRI scan to see how that goes”, says Horan. “He can’t put any weight on his leg at the moment so it’s a fairly serious injury in terms of the time until we play championship. He just went over on it in a collision with a player in a challenge match. A player hit him in the inside of his leg and forced his leg out. We don’t think it’s the cruciate. The guy who did the scan didn’t think it was cruciate because of the things he was able to do with his knee.”

Meanwhile, Fintan Goold remains Cork’s key injury concern ahead of their 2011 championship bow against Clare in next Sunday’s Munster quarter-final in Páirc Ui Chaoimh. Goold limped off with an Achilles tendon injury in last month’s league final and after being sidelined in the wake of that game, he only returned to light training at the weekend.

Apart from that, there is positive news on the injury front for Cork boss Conor Counihan. Defender John Miskella linked up with the squad last week after making good progress in recovering from the back problem that he sustained during the league final, while both Aidan Walsh and Alan Quirke have emerged unscathed from recent club championship action. Captain Graham Canty also declared himself fit last night ahead of the Clare match but admitted that he is suffering from a lack of match practice. Canty has not lined out for Cork since last September’s All-Ireland final due to a persistent hamstring injury. “I’m available for selection but I wouldn’t say I’m at full fitness because I don’t have matches under my belt. Match-practice-wise I’d be fairly rusty but at least the injury is cleared up. There were no complications. I just had a lot of work to do on the hamstring. I had to get a proper foundation and when I had that done I could build on it. The last thing I wanted to happen was for it to bite me later in the year, so hopefully it’ll stay right for the rest of the summer.”

Kerry selector Diarmuid Murphy has revealed that the management are pleased with the progress of Paul Galvin in his recovery from a hamstring injury ahead of next Sunday’s Munster championship opener against Tipperary in Killarney. Galvin incurred the knock in their closing league game against Down yet is in the frame for selection for next weekend.

But Murphy’s clubmate Tommy Griffin will definitely be sidelined for the game due to an ongoing hamstring problem.

“Paul’s okay actually. He’s in better shape than we thought he’d be. He’s been back in training with us and we’ve been reasonably happy with him. We haven’t a panel or a team picked yet but he’s certainly in contention. Tommy certainly won’t be available next Sunday. After that I’m not too sure. He’s been slow enough recovering. His ankle is now fine after the operation, it’s just his hamstring now after that which he did damage to. It’s been slow to heal. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Tipperary have several injury worries to contend with ahead of that game with manager John Evans rating Seamus Grogan, Ciarán McGrath, Peter Acheson and Ciarán McDonald all as serious doubts.

“We’ve had injury problems all year. Seamus Grogan and Peter Acheson are very, very doubtful. Ciarán McGrath picked up a knock over the weekend and then you’ve Ciarán McDonald battling an injury as well. These are all injuries that we won’t know where we stand on until the weekend. Seamus and Ciarán McGrath are two ankle injuries, while Peter and Ciarán McDonald have hamstring problems.

“We’ll be trying to give them every chance but the time element is against us. Robbie Kiely then would be the fifth player in trouble with an ankle problem. On the plus side Alan Rockett has been out there for a few weeks but he’s battling his way back into it and he’ll be back in contention come Sunday I would hope.”