'It looks a nasty injury': Shane Walsh a doubt for Galway's quarter-final

"He fell forward and the Down player followed through with the knee on the shoulder so he's a bit of a bother there," said Galway manager Pádraic Joyce. 

Shane Walsh delivered again for Galway against Down, scoring 1-7 in his side's win. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Shane Walsh is again an injury worry for Pádraic Joyce ahead of Galway’s forthcoming All-Ireland quarter-final after damaging his shoulder in Newry.

Walsh picked up the problem in winning a two-point free off Peter Fegan in the 30th minute of this preliminary quarter-final win over Down. He went down again in the 62nd minute before sending over a two-pointer off his left foot to bring his personal total to 1-7, his last act before being replaced.

Joyce admitted it is a concern ahead of going to Croke Park. “Yeah, he got a nasty injury, he fell forward and the Down player followed through with the knee on the shoulder so he's a bit of a bother there with the shoulder.

“We left him on there for 10 minutes just to see how he got on but he's getting no better so we'll assess him here, we'll go back and see what it is, it looks a nasty injury.”

It is unfortunate for Galway as the 32-year-old delivered in spades for the second game in a row following a slow start in Páirc Esler. “After 15 minutes, he got into the game and got the shackles off a bit but he kicked a couple of great twos, kicked the free and kicked the goal as well so yeah he was quite sharp,” said his manager.

Joyce was delighted to see his players answer some of their critics with a win that displayed character in staving off Down at the end. “People are saying we don't play for 70 minutes. I think we got a good performance there for the full 70 minutes overall.

“You're never going to get things your own way. There was two (teams) knocked out yesterday and two knocked out today, so we're down to the last eight. That's where we're at. We know where we are, we're happy enough to be there.

“We've work to do, and we just can't perform like that next week whoever we are playing in the quarter-finals. If we concede that kind of score, we're going to be in trouble.” 

Joyce hopes Galway will be afforded a Sunday quarter-final to give them a seven-day build-up in what will be their third game in 15 days but won’t be seeking it.

“Look, we put ourselves in that situation so we're not going to be complaining. We’ll get on with it. We’ll get back down the road tonight but again the big thing for us is that we've had three long journeys. We've been in Celtic Park, we've been to Breffni Park and we're in Newry so they're huge journeys, they're two days travel and then trying to recover and get back down the road.

“We left Galway yesterday at 1pm and we won't get home until about 10pm tonight so that's part of it but it's a privilege to be playing for Galway, being involved in Galway we could be at worse things on the weekends, to be honest.” 

As Conor Flaherty struggled to find Galway men with his second half kick-outs, Joyce twice called for Connor Gleeson to get ready to enter the game but ultimately opted against it as Flaherty turned things around.

“We kicked away two, three, four but we've two good keepers in Galway. The wind was really, really strong as well and probably Connor Gleeson would have had a bit more distance but we didn't opt for it in the end.

“In fairness to Conor Flaherty, he gathered himself at the end there and the two or three last kick-outs were really, really good to our main guys. Cein Darcy caught some brilliant ball again and Peter Cooke made a huge impact when he came off the bench as well so yeah, happy enough with it.”