Hayes in fitness race for Munster

CLARE defender, Rory Hayes is a major injury doubt for the county’s opening round of the Munster SHC, writes

Páraic McMahon

Wolfe Tones man Hayes was not part of the Clare panel which lost out by five points to Galway on Sunday.

Manager Brian Lohan confirmed he “has a broken bone in his wrist and will be out five or six weeks”.

Rory has been twice nominated for an All Star award at corner back since becoming a regular in the county senior hurling team since getting his first start in the Munster SHC in 2020. He has been part of the senior panel since 2018, after getting called up to the squad by then managers Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor.

We were hoping to put in a better performance than we did today but we were up against a good opponent and we have to take that into account.

"We are disappointed not to get the result but there are some good prospects. We saw a good few guys today but we just weren’t strong enough to deal with Galway in the second half. That’s the name of the game. You try and see as many players as you can but you also try and win as many matches as you can. We saw a good few guys today but we just weren’t strong enough to deal with them in the second half”.

MANAGER COMMENT “

Henry Shefflin, Galway:

"We were slow to start and Clare were moving very well with a slight breeze. We grinded our way back into the game and we put ourselves in a good platform for the second half.

“It was a good perfor- mance. Training has gone fairly well in the last few weeks and we were hoping to see that today.

“We got game time into a lot of players. It was important that we didn’t pick up any more injuries as we had picked up a few in the last few weeks.

“Conor Cooney played very well and he linked up the play very well. He also played very well the last day and was one of our better players on that occasion, took the frees very well. Evan (Niland) came in and he took the frees and it wasn’t a bother on Conor. He just went about his business which is a great sign. They moved the ball very well today and threw it to the man in the better position. Yes, we had some bad wides. There were aspects of the game which were pleasing but there is plenty to work on. Coming down here to Ennis is always a difficult challenge."

Player Watch

MINUTES PLAYED: 70

Possessions: 5 (2/3)

Passes: 2 (1/1)

Hand Pass: 1 (1/0)

Hurley Pass (long): 1 (0/1)

Shots: 1

Scores: 0-01

Wides: 0

Dropped Short: 0

Tackles: 4 (2/2)

Blocks: 1 (1/0)

Hooks: 0

Turnovers for: 2 (2/0)

Turnovers against: 2 (0/2)

With Clare’s first round of the provincial championship versus Tipperary scheduled for April 23 in Cusack Park, Hayes will be battling against time to recover from the injury giving Feakle’s Adam Hogan a chance to earn a championship debut while Cian Nolan of Smith O’Brien's is also an option but the Killaloe man has only seen 20 minutes of action in this year’s league.

Mark Rodgers is another player out of action. The Scariff forward was ruled out through injury for Sunday’s game against Galway but is expected to be back in contention prior to the Tipperary game.

It’s not as optimistic for Shane Meehan. The Banner forward has been struggling with a pelvic injury all year and has not been available for selection for any contest thus far in 2023.

Subsequently, the Mary Immaculate College student is unlikely to feature in the championship until the latter end of the provincial series, at best.

Shane O’Donnell’s return to training provides a boost given the other injury setbacks. Lohan confirmed that O’Donnell has resumed collective training with the county squad.

Elsewhere, Darragh Lohan returned to the matchday panel for the first occasion in this year’s League. The Wolfe Tones man had been centre back during the Munster Senior Hurling League but sustained a hamstring injury which ruled him out of the first three rounds of the National Hurling League and UL’s knockout games in the Fitzgibbon Cup.