Kilkenny’s Tommy Walsh is likely to line out in the All-Ireland hurling final against Tipperary after X-rays showed no serious damage in the shoulder injury that he sustained in a club game on Sunday.
But Cats selector Martin Fogarty has poured cold water on rumours that Henry Shefflin would make a sensational return for the clash against the September 5 final.
Walsh was playing for Tullaroan in a senior hurling league match against James Stephens on Sunday when he hit the deck after a heavy clash with county colleague Jackie Tyrrell, leaving the field shortly afterwards and causing grave concern in the Kilkenny camp.
X-rays revealed that while he damaged the AC joint in his left shoulder, he should be fit to play in Croke Park.
Kilkenny’s other injury concerns include Brian Hogan (shoulder) and Michael Rice (hand) along with cruciate victims Shefflin and John Tennyson.
Shefflin is undergoing intensive treatment with physiotherapist Ger Hartmann in Limerick, but Fogarty dismissed reports of any miracle cure as ‘rubbish’.
‘The amount of rubbish being spoken is unreal,’ Fogarty said in the Irish Examiner. ‘People have been raving around the country about this. With Henry, everything is being blown out of all proportion. Henry’s cruciate is gone. End of story. Henry is trying to build up the knee so that he is in the best condition possible before he has to face the surgeon.
‘If there is something still intact, that’s fine, but if it’s totally gone, the more work he has done to build up the knee pre-operation, the quicker his recovery will be. But the rumours are crazy. With the cruciate, when it’s gone, it’s gone.’
