Recovering Cronin stays positive ahead of battle with Clare

Let him explain why... “I had a bad dose of pneumonia over the last couple of weeks and I only got out of hospital last week so unfortunately the Clare game has come too soon for me.

I thought I had the all-clear but I just took a shoulder into the chest in the Courcey Rovers game and blood started coming up so I knew that something serious was wrong, I was taken straight to CUH then.

“Obviously, it’s something that you’d look forward to all year, the first round of the Munster championship. Not to be on the pitch is a big disappointment but hopefully they’ll get over it and I’ll be back for the Munster final.”

Crediting medics Dr Con Murphy and Deccie O’Sullivan with helping his recovery, Cronin added that heavy training may have caused his illness: “That’s what the doctor said, I just caught an infection and it spread.

“I was on antibiotics until last week, so hopefully, all going well, I might be able to play some part. It’d be nice, but I probably won’t be back training until Thursday.”

It’s not the only disappointment this year. Cork were relegated after losing a play-off with Sunday’s opponents.

“The relegation final was a setback. We were all down but Jimmy came into the dressing room straight after and said that he had been involved in teams which had been relegated and gone on to win the All-Ireland.

“He just said not to dwell on it too much and we’ve had some brilliant training sessions over the last few weeks, the lads have reacted very well and hopefully they’ll perform on Sunday.”

Cronin will speak in the dressing room Sunday but as he says, there other leaders there too.

“We’ve fellas with All-Ireland medals — Tom Kenny, Brian Murphy, Shane O’Neill who often talk in the dressing room.

“I would always have been a small bit vocal, but as captain you have to develop it a bit more and take on a bit more responsibility.

“It’s something I’ve enjoyed so far, obviously the illness is a bit of a setback but hopefully I can bounce back.”

Cronin says his teammates are “way more prepared now” than they were for the relegation play-off.

“Clare are a team who always come good in the last 15 or 20 minutes, so we’ve been trying to counteract that and to bring our own fitness levels up as high as we can. It is strange going in as underdogs. Over my time it was always Waterford and Tipperary that you’d fear. It’s good for hurling that you have Limerick in a Munster final and it’d be great if Cork could be there too.”

Cronin’s Munster championship debut was against Clare in 2007, the infamous Semplegate game (“I tried my best to stay out of it! I can’t really remember too much about it, there was a lot of skin and hair flying before the ball was even thrown in but you just have to keep calm”) but this edition of the Banner are different.

“Clare are a very young team, a lot of the players who beat us in the U21 in 2008 will probably be playing on Sunday. I would have played a lot of hurling with Brendan Bugler in college, he’s very good. They’ve a very solid goalkeeper, a lot of the attacks are set up through him, and up front they’re very good as well, Tony Kelly and fellas like that.”