THE FIVE NA Piarsaigh players in the Limerick squad will not be available for the county’s crunch Division 1B hurling league tie against Cork next Saturday.
And new joint manager TJ Ryan has revealed that the Na Piarsaigh crew – David Breen, Shane Dowling, Kevin Downes, Cathal King and Alan Dempsey – will be given time off to recover after a long season which ended with last Saturday’s disappointing All-Ireland semi-final loss to Portumna.
“Those guys between winning the Munster club and training through December and January, they need a break. So they will be getting a couple of weeks off.
“You’ve to be fair to them. They need a break. From a player welfare point of view themselves, them trying to hurl all the way through wouldn’t be good. They’ll be out until the middle of the league I think, we’ll probably give them three or four weeks off.”
With Seamus Hickey (cruciate) and Declan Hannon (ankle) ruled out for the majority of the league, Limerick are short on attacking options ahead of Saturday’s opener in Páirc Uí Rinn.
“We don’t have Seamus and Declan, while Niall Moran has retired, that’s three forwards. Then you’ve David Breen, Shane Dowling and Kevin Downes out, that’s six forwards you’re down. There’s a lot of experience there, big loss for us.”
Ryan admits Saturday is a pivotal encounter for his side.
“It’s a difficult assignment for the first night out. They were 30 seconds away from winning an All-Ireland so that’s the kind of team you’ll be playing against. As well as that in Division 1B this year, there’s only one team that gets promoted. So it is a very big game.”
