Recovering Cody takes ‘minor’ role at Nowlan Park

Brian Cody was in Nowlan Park over the weekend – but on Saturday at a minor match, not for yesterday’s hurling league final.

Kilkenny selector Michael Dempsey said that Cody, who is recovering from heart surgery, is expected back on the sideline soon.

“Brian may have a reputation, though I’m not sure what the reputation is with the media, but he’s very much a delegator and he did tell us to get on with it,” said Dempsey.

“Obviously we did want to consult him, the man has so much experience of hurling, and we’d be afraid to make any dramatic changes without getting his approval.

“But even when we put difficult things to him he said to get on with it. He was very supportive – unfortunately he couldn’t be here today, and it’s a pity, playing a national league final in Nowlan Park, that he wasn’t able to attend.

“It’s great that we won today and he’s due back shortly.

“That’s dependent on medical advice – he was at a minor match here yesterday so obviously he didn’t want to face ye fellas today. No, obviously with the crowd and so on today, it would have been harder – he was able to come in yesterday at his ease. We’re lucky we won today or he might come back a little quicker than we might want!”

Dempsey had mixed news of Kilkenny’s injured players, a stellar trio of Henry Shefflin, TJ Reid and Richie Power.

“I don’t know when Henry will be back, it depends on how he reacts to the physio, but he is doing some work and is making good progress.

“With the injury it’s too early to say; it will depend on how he reacts to the training. Hopefully his reaction is good and we’ll have him back as soon as possible. He’s doing some jogging at the moment.

“TJ (Reid) togged out today – he’s had a very tough time, I don’t think there’s a day in the last five or six months when he hasn’t done some rehab. He’s back doing some running and he obviously has a lot of work to do as he’s missed a lot of hurling. We’ll see how he gets on, we’ll have to see if he plays with his club next weekend.

“Richie has a bruised chest and it’s just been a bit slow to heal, so again we’ll have to see how he gets on with the club.

” They’ll all go back to their clubs now and we won’t see them for two weeks, which is obviously very good for their clubs, but that’s a large block of training they won’t get. They’ll do some work on their own but they’ll have competitive club games as well.”