The latest injury update from Kilkenny senior hurling manager Derek Lyng is a positive one as far as a number of the established panel members are concerned.
The Cats’ win over Cork in UPMC Nowlan Park on Sunday saw a first start for Danesfort’s Richie Hogan in close on three years with Lyng optimistic that there are more names coming back in than going out over the coming weeks.
“They’ve been working really hard away from it”, Lyng says of Ballyhale Shamrocks duo Adrian Mullen and TJ Reid. “They’re getting closer to being ready for action now, so we’ll see how they are in the next couple of weeks.”
“We want a competitive squad. I think a lot of lads [on Sunday] put their hands up again. And that’s what we asked them, grab the jersey when you have it. And you know, we’re seeing that competition coming through with the lads coming back. And that’s exactly where we want to be.”
“Up to now it’s been week-on-week in terms of seeing who you have available. We’re training hard, matches week-on-week. You’re bound to get a few injuries and that so some of them we haven’t had until they were really. So hopefully we have more players coming back in the next couple of weeks rather than going out the other way. It will make decisions difficult for us in terms of picking the 15, but that’s a welcome problem.”
As for 2022 captain Richie Reid, Lyng had this to tell us about his recent concussion.
“It was serious enough to keep him out until now. We thought he was feeling a bit better but again, just a few symptoms during the week so we weren’t taking any chances with him. We just have to keep an eye on him but at the minute he’s feeling a little bit better than he was during the week. Hopefully, he’ll be back in the reckoning soon.”
For both Billy Ryan and Eoin Cody who sat out this past weekend’s semi-final against Cork, their return to the starting lineup might take a little bit longer.
“It’s nothing too serious. Two weeks time might be a little bit tight, I’m not sure yet. We’ll have to assess them but other than that we’re only looking at two or three weeks.”
