Cahill and Fitzgerald left counting the cost of injuries to key men

INJURY BLOWS: Tipperary’s Seamus Callanan and Austin Gleeson of Waterford. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

An injury toll that included two Hurlers of the Year and an All-Star full-back provided lingering headaches for both managers after a hard-hitting league encounter on Saturday night.

Davy Fitzgerald said Austin Gleeson and Conor Prunty face a race against time to be fit for the start of the Munster Championship, while Liam Cahill is left sweating on a scan of Séamus Callanan’s knee.

“Hamstring to Prunty, hamstring to Austin, [Shane] McNulty had to come off at the end,” said Fitzgerald.

“It depends how bad they are. You’re looking from three to six weeks and Prunty is a big loss to us.

“We’re in a race against time with the Limerick game and missing two or three of them.

“Mikey Kiely will be touch and go whether he makes it back or not. Darragh Lyons probably won’t be back so we are down a few bodies. But no excuses, we’ll be ready to go in April.

“Playing Kilkenny next week, [we’ll be] without probably five or six starters for definite.

“If we win it we’re in a semi-final so I’ll be trying to win it. The team I have out on the field will be the strongest team. Anyone that’s not injured that can play from my first team will be going out.” 

Cahill had hoped Callanan’s knee issue was a temporary impact injury at first but was left more concerned by the update.

“Séamie yanked his knee. I thought it was a slap on the kneecap from where I was standing but no, it was a twist or a jerk of the knee,” said Cahill.

“We’ll have to get a handle on that very early in the week. Hopefully Monday we’ll get it scanned and see how we go.” 

Conor Bowe was withdrawn “as a precaution” after a 10-minute cameo in which the first-touch goal-scorer “seemed to tweak a muscle up high in his quad”.