Nicky English has left a vacancy at midfield in the hope that Paul Kelly recovers in time for Sunday's semi-final against Wexford. The Mullinahone man participated in training last night in Thurles, but the selectors will delay until later in the week before assessing his readiness.

"He's been getting intense treatment with Alan Kelly since the injury happened and with a hamstring injury, two and half weeks is a short time so he will be against the clock," the Tipperary manager said. "But I know myself I played with a hamstring injury in 1991 and was no good to either myself or the team and if Paul is not 100 per cent fit he will not be playing for us on Sunday."

He added that a number of options were open to the selector should Kelly fail to come through. "Well, we have Conor Gleeson, Aidan Butler and Noel Morris and Michael Ryan has played at midfield for us before so we will se how it looks on the day." Apart from that vacancy, the team is the same as the Munster final side.

"Well, we did win that match and it is difficult to change a winning team and we have never done that in Tipperary. With the five subs now, you can change a side on the day. Hurling is a different game now to what it was a few years ago. With five subs, you must use them." English added that a number of substitutes were pushing hard for first team places.

"We look at this as a 20-man game now and, in the second half, if the players from positions eight to 12 are doing their job correctly, then they shouldn't last 70 minutes."

TIPPERARY (SH v Wexford): B Cummins; T Costello, P Maher, P Ormonde; J Carroll, D Kennedy, E Corcoran; T Dunne, AN Other; M O'Leary, E Enright, B O'Meara; O Kelly, D Ryan, L Corbett.