John Hanbury and Conor Cooney in Galway fitness fight

Galway hurler John Hanbury is in a race to be fit for Sunday week’s All- Ireland final. The Galway full-back has been sidelined since the county’s semi-final win over Tipperary on Sunday week last owing to a calf strain.

Hanbury picked up the knock early in the second-half at GAA headquarters and manager Anthony Cunningham last night revealed the defender has not completed a full session in the past 10 days.

The Galway boss is hopeful the 22-year old will return to full contact training this weekend.

“He did some light running on Tuesday and he will take a full part tonight and Sunday,” said Cunningham.

Conor Cooney, meanwhile, is in contention to return to the match-day panel for the county’s September 6 date with Kilkenny. Cooney has not played a single competitive game for the Tribesmen this year as he continues to recover from a second metatarsal fracture.

Cunningham confirmed Cooney has returned to full training and the Galway manager didn’t rule out the 22-year old togging out on Sunday week.

“Conor is back training with us and playing with us. He’s probably short on game time, but he’s doing well in training. He had a very tough year. He had a metatarsal break in January in a training camp. And it refractured after he came back. He had to get a pin in it the second time. And then he had some other injuries because he was out and it affected his leg and hip as well.

“He took a huge amount of rehab to get it back. But he’s delighted to be back now. He was down in the dumps really because it was so difficult to see everyone else playing and see all the matches going on.

“Conor was our Player of the Year last year, really. For that to happen to him was difficult. But it’s good that he’s back now.”

U21 trio Jason Flynn, Cathal Mannion and Conor Whelan emerged unscathed from last weekend’s All-Ireland U21 semi-final defeat to Limerick, though the three players were understandably disappointed when returning to the set-up.

“Everyone’s disappointed. We all thought they had a team capable of going much further and they just didn’t.

“They’re all fine. We trained since. It’s also good to get a reality check after a big win. After a big win, it’s good to be back in training and back in reality.”

Cunningham said there were no concerns the panel’s younger members would be sidetracked by the pre-final hype which has swept through the county. Kilkenny, he stressed, represented their sole focus.

“I wouldn’t be looking at the hype and all that stuff. We’re looking at things that we want fellas to improve on.

“We watched the Leinster final a few times on DVD. We would watch the Kilkenny/Waterford match. It doesn’t get over analysed either. It’s the same as doing drills or doing stuff on the training pitch. Where can you learn? Where can you get improvement? It will be the same with Kilkenny. You want to improve every day you go out.”