Hannon beats ‘bug’ to make Déise tie
DECLAN HANNON is available to play a full part in Limerick’s Munster SHC clash with Waterford on Sunday after overcoming a “tummy bug” which affected many of his Treaty team-mates last weekend.
The Limerick skipper lasted just six minutes of last Saturday’s epic draw against Cork with Kiely offering no explanation for his substitution but the Adare centre-back returned to training on Tuesday night.
“Declan is fine – Declan was sick. We had an issue last week with a tummy bug in the camp. A number of players and management and backroom team had it. It was just one of those things and what do you do – we had to cope with it and get on with it,” Kiely told the ‘Limerick Leader’.
“Luckily, it was early in the week so we had a couple of days clear but at the same time we were concerned that fellas could have been brewing it or in the process of brewing it – we don’t know if it was something we ate or something we just came across.
“He wasn’t really happy with the warm-up and had flagged us that he wasn’t really feeling great. We said give it five or 10 minutes to see how you are but he just hadn’t the energy. He is flying and ready to go now.”
Kiely also outlined that Aaron Gillane – who received a straight red card for a strike on Cork’s Seán O’Donoghue in the lead up to half-time – is accepting his suspension with Peter Casey one of the players who may profit from his absence.
The news is not so good for Wexford boss Davy Fitzgerald, however, as the Model sweat over the fitness of ace attacker Rory O’Connor ahead of their crunch Leinster SHC tie with Kilkenny on Saturday evening in Nowlan Park.
O’Connor picked up a hand injury in their lacklustre defeat to Galway last Saturday and is understood to be waiting on the results of a scan.
Were the St Martin’s forward not available to face the Cats, it would be a huge dent to the Model’s aspirations of reaching a second successive provincial final against the Tribesmen.
Meanwhile, captain Dara McVeety has declared himself “100pc fit” after a recent hamstring injury and will be a significant boost to Cavan football boss Mattie McGleenan ahead of Saturday’s SFC Qualifier against Wicklow.
Elsewhere, the CPA have outlined recent meetings with GAA president John Horan where they requested that a National Fixtures Forum be set up this year to “decide together the best way forward”.
“This would be a catalyst for sustainable change. We believe that slow and incremental change to the fixtures crisis will not deliver the proper fixtures plan that players deserve, and are starting to demand.”
The CPA also met with director-general Tom Ryan and Horan last week and “offered the opportunity to present our ideas to the CCCC this month as the CCCC is starting to work on the Master Fixture Plan for 2019.”