Shefflin too good to be held in reserve, warns Cats legend Carter

Injury and injury alone has kept Henry Shefflin from the Kilkenny championship team these last 16 years.

That is as true now as it was when a foot operation ended his incredible run of 62 SHC starts ended in June of last year.

Since then, he has missed four entire games through injury, appeared as a substitute in five and started just one, last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Cork in which he was sent off.

Not since the 2012 All-Ireland final replay has that season’s hurler of the year started and finished a championship match for Kilkenny.

At the age of 35 and with six operations in seven years, more cynical observers would suggest Shefflin is now suffering the same fate as stars DJ Carey and Charlie Carter before him.

The pasture looks greener by the minute.

Tommy Walsh, who has been riddled with injuries but more of a niggling nature compared to Shefflin’s major ailments, hasn’t been getting as much game-time as previous seasons either.

Shefflin wasn’t helped this year by another foot injury in the league final win over Tipperary in early May.

But after a five-week break since the Leinster final to get himself right, Carter would prefer to see Shefflin in the team to face Limerick rather than the bench. And why? For the simple reason that he still has it.

“I’d start him but I have a feeling he mightn’t and that’s just a feeling. Henry has shown more than enough in 10 minutes, himself and Taggy (Aidan) Fogarty coming on against Dublin, that he is good enough to start.

“Henry slotted over three points, his one under the Cusack Stand he celebrated it like it was his first ever in championship hurling. He got a kick out of it.

“Maybe the fact he was coming off the bench and trying to lay down a marker. There was a little fist-pump not to the crowd but to himself as if to say ‘I can still do it’.

“Two minutes later, he was over on the Hogan Stand side slotting over one. There was the great point in the first game against Galway too but it’s all down to form in training with Brian Cody.”

After a third cruciate operation, Cork boss Brian Cuthbert was mindful of not rushing Colm O’Neill back too soon, only starting him against Sligo last Saturday week.

Carter senses Cody is trying to keep Shefflin in cotton wool for as long as possible. But that time has come to an end now, he believes.

“Up to now he was trying to mind him a bit. He doesn’t want him burnt out early. Brian Cody probably saw it like if the lads could work away without him for a large part of the year then all the better.

“But Henry was injured too before the championship and that had to be considered. That’s understandable with the age he is and the miles on the clock and the injuries.

“But you’re getting down to the nitty-gritty now and in fairness to Cody he doesn’t go to war without Henry too often. He hasn’t gone to war without Tommy too often either but this year has seen a change.”

Carter, as manager of St Martin’s, Muckalee, was in opposition to Shefflin last month when he appeared for Ballyhale Shamrocks in a league game.

“Funny enough, he played really well in the first half, both himself and TJ (Reid), but then they faded out. Maybe it was that they were winning comfortably at the time.”

But if there’s one thing Carter knows about his former team-mate it’s that his class will win out most if not every time.

“I’m not Brian Cody but for me he’s too good to be held in reserve. It’s not much good if the game has gone away from you before he comes on. This Limerick team mightn’t give them a chance to keep Henry on the bench.”