Cian Lynch: Injury 'like dealing with grief, you have to accept it'

Lynch missed All-Ireland final and is now facing three months on the sidelines

GIVING THANKS: JP McManus shakes hands with Cian Lynch after Sunday's All-Ireland SHC final at Croke Park. The two-time hurler of the year is likely to be facing another three months out.

Cian Lynch is set to miss Patrickswell’s Limerick senior hurling championship campaign as he expects to be sidelined “for another three months” with his ankle issue.

The two-time hurler of the year had already been out for 10 weeks having torn his hamstring against Waterford in April before appearing as a substitute in the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway earlier this month.

In last Sunday week’s training game, Gearóid Hegarty had feared his teammate had broken his leg but according to Lynch the damage is largely confined to ligaments “down around the fibula and tibia ligaments that connect to the ankle. All of those ligaments are gone and there's something else burst inside it as well. It'll be grand, it'll toughen me up!” 

Lynch knew as soon as the results came back that he was out of the final. “To be honest, once I got the initial scans there was nothing really (that would be done) and no instant quick fix and I just had to accept that. It's like everything, it's like you're dealing with grief really, you have to accept it before you move on so that's it.” 

Lynch will continue to wear the protective boot before he sees a specialist in the coming days but coming after his hamstring problem the timing of the injury was a brutal one. “Getting the opportunity to play against Galway was unbelievable, that was kind of my aim to get back for a semi-final and thank God I did it.

“And then getting back to training and you're in your head thinking everything is going great for you and you feel great but then when something like that happens ... The initial disappointment is huge but all you can do is pick yourself up.” Following on from his erroneous sending off in the Fitzgibbon Cup final in February, it’s been a difficult season for the 26-year-old but his philosophy remains positive. “With the Fitzgibbon and getting sent off, you have to get back up dust yourself off and go again. Then the hamstring was another little blow but I always look at perspective. Even last Sunday when I hurt the leg and it might seem like the world is ending instantly, but at the end of the day I'm able to get up in the morning and get out of the bed and be able to go into training with this group of lads that are a family and have a smile on my face and that's what life is about so it's privilege to be a part of it.” 

Vice-captain Lynch was honoured to be asked by skipper Declan Hannon to join him and lifting the Liam MacCarthy Cup – “I probably wasn't dressed right for it!” he smiled about his baseball cap. “Dec is unbelievable. I've kind of grown up with him, as a young fella, I suppose aspiring to be like Declan Hannon and now getting the opportunity to play with him.

“After a thrilling game, to be able to come over and say, 'Come on, you're coming up here with me'. I'm just absolutely honoured and overwhelmed. Even after, I couldn't get over that he had the time to think and bring me up.”