LIMERICK FORWARD DECLAN Hannon faces a race against time to prove his fitness for Sunday’s Allianz League semi-final clash with Waterford.
The 23-year-old sharpshooter missed the quarter-final win over Dublin after suffering a recurrence of an old ankle injury and is now a major doubt for this weekend’s showdown in Thurles.
Hannon, who is Limerick’s leading scorer of the campaign, hasn’t trained in nearly three weeks and admits it’s a slow healing process.
“I missed the Dublin game with an ankle injury but it’s coming around,” he said yesterday.
“It’s very slow, you know. It was diagnosed as a bruised bone but it’s taking its time to get back to full fitness or whatever.
“It’s getting there, whether I’ll be ready for Sunday, it’s a waiting game. It’s just day by day at the minute. As I said, it’s getting there. We’ll just see over the next couple of days.
“I haven’t trained in two and a half weeks so we’re training Friday evening so we’ll have to see how that goes.”
Hannon’s absence would be a major blow for TJ Ryan’s side as they bid to reach their first league final since 2006.
The Adare man has been in prolific form this year as Limerick advanced from Division 1B with four wins from five outings.
“These are the games you want to be playing in,” he says looking forward to Sunday’s game at Semple Stadium.
“It’s a league semi-final and it’s the first time Limerick have been there in a long time.
“We are improving bit by bit so you want to be part of that and there is huge competition for places and you need to taken every chance you get and being on the sideline is no good to anyone.”
Declan Hannon was speaking at the announcement of Bord Gáis’ sponsorship renewal of the GAA Hurling U21 All-Ireland Championship for a further five years.
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