Cat Carey must be assessed
KILKENNY boss Derek Lyng said he’s hopeful that Mikey Carey didn’t suffer a serious injury setback during the Leinster final.
Carey was replaced just before the half-hour mark with Kilkenny coasting, though there had been doubts about his fitness coming into the game.
“We’ll have to assess it, he just fell on his shoulder,” said Lyng. “He was performing really well up to that stage. He played on for a few minutes, so I’m hoping it’s not too bad, we’ll just have to see.”
The four-week gap to the AllIreland semi-final should give Carey every chance of featuring next day out however, with Lyng’s injury list having shortened considerably by the end of a hectic six-game schedule across a seven-week period as they claimed a fifth Leinster crown on the spin.
There were also question marks over John
Donnelly last week amid reports of a broken thumb though he played the full game, scoring
0-3.
Perhaps most encouraging for
Lyng was the performance of Adrian
Mullen, who had been out since the opening round win over Antrim on April 21 but turned in a sizzling display, hitting 0-7 from play before being replaced late on.
“He is after working tremendously hard to get back from injury. The quad can be a difficult one to come back from.
“He was really diligent and went about it the right way and, look, he is an outstanding player.”
Recognition
After receiving the Bob O’Keeffe Cup, Kilkenny captain Paddy Deegan (inset) noted how there had been little recognition of the fact that they had been bidding for fivein-a-row, which he described as “an incredible achievement”.
“Yeah, it is,” Lyng agreed. “The Leinster Championship has been very competitive. People expect results and people expect different teams to win all the time and it doesn’t work like that at all.
“If you’re ever involved in it you know a lot of hard work has to go into that and you still have to perform when it comes to it.
“We haven’t been at our best but I always felt there was serious character there. I thought the way we saw out the last few minutes in Parnell Park and Nowlan Park was kind of a testament to the players that we have.
“Granted it wasn’t fluid hurling for the 70 minutes, but that’s the game. No team is going to let you dominate for 70 minutes. When it’s not going your way you just have to dig in and see that out for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and take your chances then when they come.”