A NEW ADDITION as a player returns from the AFL, a returning forward after a stellar club season and the usual collection of springtime injury worries.<\/p>\n
Kieran Kingston faces into another league campaign as Cork hurling boss on Saturday evening, trying to get his team moving again after the disappointing note on which their 2021 efforts concluded on the All-Ireland final stage.<\/p>\n
Cork start out against Clare in P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh in their Division 1 opener with five players unlikely to be involved after recent injury travails.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack O\u2019Connor hasn\u2019t trained in a while, Robbie O\u2019Flynn hasn\u2019t trained in a while, just coming back now,\u201d said Kingston.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeclan Dalton, Niall Cashman, Alan Connolly are long-term injuries, haven\u2019t trained at all with two or three months. Declan got an injury with his club in the start of November, had to have an operation, isn\u2019t back training yet, so obviously there\u2019s a rehab process here, then there\u2019s getting back onto the field with us, then there\u2019s getting up to match practice so it\u2019ll be a challenge to get back during the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cNiall is just back doing a little bit with us and Alan is out, dislocated his shoulder and again is rehabbing from that, so we haven\u2019t seen him either. They\u2019re difficult injuries to gauge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Cork manager Kieran Kingston.<\/p>\n
Source: Morgan Treacy\/INPHO<\/p>\n
Mark Keane will not be available on Saturday as he will be in the midst of Croke Park action with his club Ballygiblin chasing All-Irealnd junior glory. After a couple years with Collingwood in Melbourne, mixed with an eye-catching cameo for the Cork footballers in 2020, Keane is an intriguing hurling addition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were aware of him back along and that he was away really,\u201d said Kingston.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously everybody was aware of him when he came back and scored the goal against Kerry there a couple of years ago. He came to the fore and then obviously came back in the middle of his term over to play with his club and had a good run there, so basically I just approached him, had a chat with him, see what was his thinking. Is it something he was interested in? So we had a number of discussions and he just decided to throw his lot in with us, so we\u2019re delighted to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cork boss has also drafted Conor Lehane back into his panel. He dazzled for Midleton in last year\u2019s Cork senior hurling final, shooting 0-13 as captain, a display taht secured the man-of-the-match award.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always operated a very fluid panel and players know that. The panel is never fixed. That\u2019s very important for competition within the group, form, injury, attitude, application, whatever it might be, change of work, change of profile, fellas moving. Conor knew that when he was leaving the panel, that the opportunity would be there for him to rejoin, as any other player would know when we speak to them if they\u2019re no longer part of the squad. He took that opportunity with his club, had a really, really good club season and we\u2019d like to have him back. So let\u2019s see how it goes.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve had three high-profile retirements with Eoin Cadogan, Bill Cooper and Colm Spillane. A number of the 20s have joined the squad from the last two All-Ireland winning teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very young squad which is great for now and the future of Cork hurling. It\u2019s challenging in that this particular few weeks with Fitzgibbon Cup and Freshers, I think we\u2019ve approximately 22, 23 players playing games at the moment with their respective colleges.<\/p>\n
That puts its own demands on us in terms of managing their load, the number of games they have each week. These few weeks are difficult from that perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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