Limerick manager John Kiely has promised that Peter Casey will get "best of care" following a serious injury sustained during the Treaty County's Munster SHC round-robin win against Tipperary at the TUS Gaelic Grounds.
After scoring Limerick's second goal on 55 minutes, Casey went down injured. He was clearly in distress and was eventually stretchered off the field. And while the Munster and All-Ireland champions ran out comfortable 15-point winners, the thoughts of the Treaty boss were clearly with the Na Piarsaigh clubman when he spoke to RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"Apart from winning or losing or anything like that, or what team a player is on, nobody wants to see a player get injured on the field of play," said Kiely.
"Peter has been there before with a serious injury in Croke Park in an All-Ireland final and had to make that recovery before. I don't know the extent of the injury but it is a significant injury; there is no two ways about that. We're thinking of him and we'll make sure he gets the best of care, that he's well looked after, and we'll give him every chance to make a comeback at some point in the future. It's very disappointing."
As for the game itself, Kiely was pleased with the way his side kicked on in the second half after leading by five at the break, in spite of having wind advantage.
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"I was very pleased with our performance today. In the first half it was nip and tuck, for two thirds of it anyway. In the other third we managed to get a bit of ascendancy. We created a few scoring chances and went in five up at half time, having played with a strong breeze.
"We had a lot of work to do in the second half and we knew that at half-time. Tipp could have closed that five-point gap with the breeze. We were acutely aware of that and their threat off a breaking ball for goalscoring chances, so that was another big watch for us.
"I thought we coped really, really well and used the long ball as a platform to attack them. We were in control for most of the second half and used the ball well."
Expanding more on the threat from Tipp, the Limerick boss was pleased with the way his defence dealt with the runs off the ball made by the Premier attack.
"There were one or two occasions where there were ghost runners here and there," he added.
"They are really, really good at it and can hurt you badly. We saw it in Cork two years where they got two goals in the first half and left us in a very bad position at the break. All told we dealt with it really well. Our intensity was really, really good today and we brought it to a really high level.
"Our attitude was really spot on; we have a body of work to do to go to Cork in two weeks' time. Phase one, I'm happy with, we now move on to phase two."
