Johnny Glynn home to fire up Galway

Galway defender Pádraic Mannion has explained Jonathan Glynn will be based at home for significant parts of the summer as he returns to the panel. 

Glynn, who trained with Galway last night ahead of Sunday’s Division 1 semi-final away to Limerick, may have to return on occasions to the New York during the championship, but won’t be commuting back and forth regularly.

“Johnny, in 2015, his last year with us, was a massive part of the team,” said Mannion. “To hear he’s coming back being involved is a massive boost for the camp. I didn’t think it would work, if he was flying home for every game or every training. That’s not what the arrangement is going to be.

“It’s a great boost to have him back into the squad. I’m not 100% sure of the arrangement at the moment. He might have to go back the odd time over the summer but he’s going to be mostly at home.”

Mannion accepted Galway were never able to make up for his absence last season.

“A player like that, you can’t really replace him, but we didn’t have a terrible year last year either. We were unlucky in the semi-final, beaten by a good Tipp team that went on to win the All-Ireland. It’s a massive boost to have him back, his ball-winning ability, and he even pops up with a score as well. It’s massive to have into the squad.”

When asked if Glynn could have made a difference against Tipperary last August, Mannion shrugged saying: “Yeah, he could have been, but when you look at it, we still had some lads out there that were still doing the business. But, even at his age, he’s only 24 I think, he has massive experience and for a player like that to be coming back into the knockout stages of the league and into the championship, even for the younger lads, a player like that to come in is massive.”

Having opposed him in training, Ahascragh-Fohenagh man Mannion appreciates the difficulty the 6ft 5in Glynn presents backs.

“I used to mark him in training a good bit all right, but I never got to mark him in club championship. We were intermediate, we just came up this year. He’s a handful, even physically the size of him. He’s very good in the air as well. I wouldn’t fancy marking him too often, anyway.”