CORK BOSS KIERAN Kingston has confirmed that they will have to plan without defender Eoin Cadogan and midfielder Darragh Fitzigbbon due to injury for Saturday’s Munster semi-final against Waterford.
Cadogan recently underwent an operation on a back injury and while he has resumed some training, he is still unavailable.
A hamstring injury rules out Fitzgibbon, an All-Star winner in 2018, who has been in excellent club form in recent weeks as he helped Charleville reach the top level of senior hurling in the county and scored 1-8 in their final victory in Páirc Uí Chaoimh earlier this month.
Colm Spillane is in the frame for selection despite having gone off injured earlier this month in the opening stages of the Cork Premier IHC final with a hand injury as his club Castlelyons lost out to Blarney. Forward Robbie O’Flynn is out due to suspension after he was sent-off in their last competitive tie when they played Galway in Pearse Stadium last March.
“It’s kind of crazy really that he’s missing a championship game because of a league game in a different world,” said Kingston.
“We spoke to our own guys here in the board and I know they did make some representations on our behalf. For me the frustrating thing about it is that Robbie was sent-off in a different world, that was eight months ago.
“It was our last competitive game, the suspension we’ve no issue with that. It’s just since that the round-robin has not materialised, I just feel sorry for the player with year that is in it.”
Cork have added Blackrock trio Alan Connolly, Daniel Meaney and Tadhg Deasy to their squad after their county senior hurling final success along with Blarney’s Shane Barrett.
“There are a couple of other players carrying injuries having come back from the club championship because our lads are just back from the county final about two weeks now,” said Kingston.
“We’d a significant number of lads involved in the county finals that weekend. Some of them are carrying some niggles and we have to assess that as the week goes.
“We had a great club championship and a lot of lads put up their hand, it’s just difficult to get some gametime into those lads in the two weeks that you have when you don’t have a National League. The second thing is not having a chance as well to see the U20s during the year limits your options as you head into this different kind of season.”
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