Limerick manager John Kiely is reporting no injury concerns for Sunday week’s All-Ireland hurling final against Kilkenny. At a media event in the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Wednesday, he said that, bar new injuries during final preparations he would have a full pick available.
“We’ve a pretty much clean bill of health, really. All good — hopefully it’ll stay that way for the next 10 days. The week before the last game was the first time [this year] we had everybody really, on board.”
He spoke about the return in last weekend’s All-Ireland semi-final of two key injured personnel, All Stars Peter Casey, recovering from a cruciate damaged in last year’s All-Ireland final against Cork, and Cian Lynch, missing since late April with a hamstring tear, both of whom came off the bench before the end of the Galway match.
“We were delighted to see them come through. That’s the whole idea — we wouldn’t have played them bar we were confident. He (Cian) had already done a nice bit of work so we were confident he would come through.
“He missed 10 weeks in the season. The rest of the guys have been pushing on with three sessions a week and five championship matches in the interim, so the team has moved on. He’s under no illusions about his need to win his place back on the team.”
When he was asked did that mean he didn’t intend starting them, Kiely demurred..
“I didn’t say that. We haven’t even considered what our starting 15 might be for the next day. We have three sessions to get through now and that’s going to reveal a group of players we feel are ready to start on the day.
“We chose maybe not to play him until that period of time. That’s not to say he couldn’t have come on before that.
“If we went to extra time would I have taken him off? No, absolutely not; he’d have continued on. He was fit, fit to play, and that’s how we chose to use him on the day.”
Cork’s Colm Lyons has been appointed to take charge of his first All-Ireland hurling final when Limerick take on Kilkenny on Sunday week.
The Nemo Rangers official had previously refereed senior club finals in 2018, between Cuala and Na Piarsaigh, and 2020, between Ballyhale Shamrocks and St Thomas’s.
He also was in the middle for the drawn Tipperary-Dublin All-Ireland minor decider in 2012. This year he refereed the Clare-Wexford All-Ireland quarter-final as well as the Galway-Kilkenny round-robin match in Salthill.
Other appointments are: Galway’s Liam Gordon, standby referee, Paud O’Dwyer (Carlow) the other linesman and Michael Kennedy (Tipperary) will be the sideline official.
Lyons’s umpires will be Ciarán Hanley (Brian Dillons), Johnny Barry (Ballinure), Philip Mackey and Finian Mullane (Nemo Rangers).
