Cork’s Cronin in a ‘race against time’

Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy says it is "unlikely" Patrick Cronin will feature in Sunday week’s All-Ireland semi-final showdown against Tipperary.

Cronin was forced off at half-time in the Munster final with a hairline fracture in his ankle and had a medical boot fitted for the past three weeks to fast-track his recovery.

But Barry-Murphy conceded it will be “a race against time” to have the captain, who returned to light training on Tuesday night, fit for the meeting with Tipperary.

“Patrick Cronin, he’s very doubtful obviously, he’s a major doubt and it’s going to be a race against time. A good chance he’ll make it, it’s probably unlikely but we’re hoping.

“He has the boot off now and he’s doing a light bit [of running].

“He got the injury in training, believe it or not, he got a belt in training on the Tuesday night when we had a bit of a game. From what Dr Con [Murphy] was telling me subsequently, it was more of a stress fracture then that developed during the game [Munster final].

“He didn’t get a belt in the game itself but the bone obviously… he did feel it, it was like a snap on the day but he didn’t know what it was. It was obviously a recurrence of what he’d got in training and he was in a boot then.

“But it’s a bit like Mark Ellis before the Munster final. We’ll see next Tuesday night and make a call on it then after that.”

Dual players Aidan Walsh, Damien Cahalane and Eoin Cadogan were involved in Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final defeat to Mayo and the manager expressed confidence that the trio have put the loss, from a physiological viewpoint, to bed.

“They are big boys. There is no sympathy out there for feeling sorry for yourself. The Munster final display against Kerry was a big downer for them. They would have regained a lot of pride from last Sunday. The lads are obviously a bit down, but nothing we can’t sort out or they can’t sort out themselves.

“The dual experiment is all relative to how a team does. From our point of view we felt we needed the lads. They have been a great boost to us, a great boost to the panel in terms of increasing competition. We couldn’t be happier with [the dual experiment].

“Every player has to decide for themselves whether they can do it or not. Speaking with Aidan [Walsh] he is happy enough with it and it has worked out fairly well for him.”