Kevin Downes makes up for injury nightmare

Kevin Downes was listed as number 24 in the match programme for Sunday’s Limerick senior hurling championship final. He has been in and out of the action all year due to injury. And the county player admitted afterwards it was touch and go right up to the throw-in whether he would be fit to play with Na Piarsaigh in the decider against Patrickswell.

He did line out, at full-forward, providing serious firepower to their attacking unit. He shot 1-5 (1-3 in the first half), bagging their only goal in an intense game that resulted in a one-point victory.

“My year has been frustrating in many ways,” he revealed. “I picked up a serious knee injury at the start of the year and I missed a lot of pre-season and I missed a lot of the campaign with Limerick.I was unable to start in the Kilmallock game (county semi-final) after I picked up a hamstring injury.

“It had been niggling at me for the last few games. I’ve missed out for the most of the last two months. I was doing what I could with the team but a lot of it was on my own. It was touch and go whether I would make it or not for today. I didn’t really train all week. But thankfully it all held up.

“I must give special mention to David Breen, Paul Murray and Darragh Droog for getting me back. I was doing plenty of work with Darragh (strength and conditioning coach) but I couldn’t run. But those are the ups and downs of sport. I am just delighted to be part of it.”

Overcoming obstacles becomes par for the course and Na Piarsaigh had to work hard to get the result. Especially when they fell five points behind after the break.

“It was looking dodgy there in the second half. We are just delighted to pull it out of the bag. We have been in county finals the last few years and the experience stood to us. We knew we couldn’t panic. Thankfully we got the momentum going again and we got the few scores and we got back into it. We knew what was at stake. Patrickswell are a fantastic team. They are probably the form team throughout this championship. We knew it was going to be a massive test. We wanted to start well, we did, and then it kind of lulled again.

“They got a great start to the second half, it was all going their way. But we kept to the task and thankfully it worked out. It is onwards and upwards now for the Munster club.”

The champions, who now have three county titles (’11, ’13, ‘15), will travel to play Sixmilebridge the weekend after next.

“It is not too much of a spin for us, just 20 minutes out the road,” he smiled. “It is a rematch from two years ago. But we will enjoy the county win first and get back to training probably Tuesday night.”