Shefflin out with foot injury

Henry Shefflin looks almost certain to miss Kilkenny’s Leinster quarter-final against Offaly after suffering a stress fracture in his foot.

Shefflin would have been expected to make his 66th championship appearance for the Cats in Nowlan Park on June 6 but is facing four weeks on the sidelines as a result of his latest injury.

The 35-year-old suffered a blow to his foot during Kilkenny’s Allianz HL final victory over Tipperary last Sunday but trained on Tuesday night.

The discomfort caused him to have the injury checked out, however, and the full extent of the problem emerged yesterday.

The Ballyhale Shamrocks clubman has endured a terrible run of injuries since suffering a cruciate knee ligament tear for the second time in 2010. In the ensuing period, he has been ruled out for lengthy periods by shoulder and foot injuries.

As a result, the nine-time All-Ireland winner missed his first championship game last summer since making his debut against Laois in 1999, ending an unbroken sequence of 62 consecutive outings.