Stephen Bennett to miss Waterford’s league campaign

Waterford hurling boss Derek McGrath has suffered a major blow, with the news that star forward Stephen Bennett is set to miss the entirety of next season’s national league campaign.

Because of recurring hip problems, Bennett underwent surgery last week and he is due to have an additional similar operation later this week.

Although he only turned 20 last month, Bennett additionally required double hip surgery during the course of 2014.

“Stephen Bennett is certain to be out until late April or early May, so there’s no way that he will be involved with Waterford during the course of the league,” explained team selector Dan Shanahan on the situation regarding the Ballysaggart clubman.

“So he won’t be available to us until the Munster championship.

“The previous hip operations that Stephen had didn’t work out as well as had been hoped, so that is why he is having the additional surgery on both of his hips. Following the previous operations he was out for about eight to 10 weeks, but on this occasion the recovery period will be much longer because of the importance to get everything right and for Stephen not to have any further problems with his hips.

“He’ll probably be on crutches for two to three weeks and it will be a long time after that before he will be able to start doing a bit of light training.

“It’s obviously a very young age for a player to have so many problems with his hip so hopefully Stephen won’t experience any more problems once he’s had the latest two operations,” added former Waterford star Shanahan.

Despite his hip difficulties, Bennett, whose younger brother Shane scored a wonder goal in this year’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Dublin, at Semple Stadium, played a major part in what was a very successful campaign for McGrath’s charges in 2015.

A member of the Déise starting line-up in the respective league semi-final and final wins over Tipperary and Cork, and the Munster Championship ties against Cork and Tipperary, Stephen was introduced as a sub for his brother Shane in the All-Ireland quarter-final and semi-final against Dublin and Kilkenny, respectively.

As well as Stephen Bennett, the reigning league champions could be without outstanding attacker Pauric Mahony until next year’s Munster Championship campaign.

“Pauric Mahony certainly won’t be back for the start of the league as he has only recently begun to do a bit of light jogging,” said Waterford legend Shanahan on the Ballygunner clubman who underwent cruciate ligament surgery last May.

“So our focus will be to have him ready for next year’s Championship.”

Last year, Pauric Mahony was appointed vice-captain of the Waterford team but it is not known yet if he will be entrusted with the role for the 2016 campaign. “It all depends on when Pauric gets back playing for us, so we will leave that decision until next year,” explained Shanahan.

However, there will no change in the Déise captaincy for next year, with the long-serving Kevin Moran set to be leading the team once again.