MATTIE KENNY SAID the possibility of today’s Leinster hurling final being postponed was never an option after Dublin lost four players due to a positive Covid test on Saturday morning.
Cian O’Callaghan and Ronan Hayes dropped out of the starting team while substitutes Fergal Whitely and Oisin O’Rorke also had to be replaced at short notice ahead of their decider against Kilkenny.
Kenny said they only became aware of the Covid case, in addition to three players being identified as close contacts, in the hours before the game.
“I think Croke Park made themselves very, very clear that these games had to go ahead,” said Kenny. “It wasn’t even something we considered.
“It was disappointing coming this morning. If it was something that happened earlier in the week, we could maybe deal with it more. We talked to the squad through a text and put it at the back of our minds.
“This Delta variant is hitting that 15 to 30-year-old age group. I think for all club and counties teams, we’re in more danger than we were anytime in the last 18 months because this (variant) is so widespread in that younger population and nobody is vaccinated in that population.
“So lookit, I think we’ve all got to just double down and we have been doing that because all inter-county teams are kind of operating in their own bubble. This came a little bit out of left-field on us in the last few days.
“We had them close contacts (notified) this morning. We understand the importance and seriousness of it. So we’ve just got to go back and double down on our own protocols. It cost us today but we’ve got to make sure that it’s not an issue for us in two weeks’ time.”
Kilkenny prevailed by nine points and Kenny refused to put the defeat down to the disruption caused by the Covid issue.
“There was an opportunity there today for other guys. We had to call four guys into the panel this morning and there were other guys stepping into the team. That’s what squads are for really. Is it unfortunate, is it disappointing? Yes it is, but the show has to go on.
“We asked our guys to go out there, to be brave, attack Kilkenny and take the game to the opposition. They did that for long periods and we just fell off in the last quarter. We’re proud of the guys, we’ll regroup again now.
“There’s six teams left in the competition now and we’re one of the six. So we’ve got to get ready for that quarter-final and give a really, really good account of ourselves there. I tell you, I guarantee you these guys will bounce back from this now and we’ll come back stronger in two weeks’ time.”
Kenny is hopeful the four affected players will return in time for the All-Ireland quarter-final against a side that emerges from the qualifiers on 31 July.
“They have to get tested, test negative and test negative again in 10 days’ time. So I think if you get another negative test after 10 days (you’re cleared to return). That’s my understanding, we probably need clarification on that.
“We’ll hopefully get them back early in the week of the match. But lookit, we’ll be talking to our team doctor and our medical guys. It wasn’t a question I was asking this morning because we’d more pressing things to look at. But later tonight and tomorrow we’ll get the full details around that.”
The Dublin boss believes “very, very few” of his players are vaccinated at this stage.
“I was talking to our guys two weeks ago, or whenever the government said that the vaccinations were there in the pharmacies. So I asked guys to look for that. But I haven’t got enough details on that.
“I believe the pharmacies haven’t got the vaccinations at the moment. So I’d love if early next week some of our guys could get that. But they have the same right and no more of a right than anybody else in the population so they’ve just got to wait their turn. But to answer your question I’d say very, very few of the guys have been vaccinated, if any.”
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