Kilkenny’s Walter Walsh will miss the opening rounds of the Leinster senior hurling championship.
The three-time All-Ireland winner suffered a groin injury during Kilkenny’s league win over Offaly at the end of February.
He has remained sidelined since that Nowlan Park victory and will miss Saturday’s Division One league final against Clare. Walsh is not expecting to see any game-time during the early stages of the provincial championship either.
If his recovery goes to plan, Walsh hopes to play some part in the round three Leinster SHC game against Carlow on May 11th, which would be as positive an outcome as could be expected from a setback which initially caused concerns he would require surgery and miss the rest of the intercounty season.
“That was [the fear] and with an operation that could be four or five months out, it could be the season gone,” says Walsh. “Because you don’t know how well you are going to respond to it afterwards either. So, yeah, I’ll take the 10 or 12 weeks I might be out.
“It was a bit of separation from the bone, I’m lucky I didn’t need an operation on it really. I went to see a specialist and realised I didn’t need an operation. I rested it for the first couple of weeks and then just I’ve been doing rehab the last few weeks. So, hopefully I’ll be back in four or five weeks now.
“After the Galway game there is a two-week break before the Carlow game, which would bring me up to 10 or 11 weeks, but again it’s all down to seeing how the rehab goes.”
The 32-year-old has been dealt several injury setbacks in recent seasons – he had a groin issue in 2022 and last year there was a hamstring problem – but the Tullogher Rosbercon clubman is refusing to adopt a despondent outlook on his current situation.
“I could have needed an operation and be gone for the season, so I’m trying to be optimistic about it,” he explains.
“As well as that, it could have happened during the first round of the championship either and that is potentially the season gone as well. So, I suppose the timing isn’t too bad.
“After coming back from the club campaign, I felt good, so it was unfortunate to pick up the injury, but I’m trying to be optimistic. There are players who have got far worse injuries.”
Walsh will travel with the Kilkenny squad to Semple Stadium on Saturday night for their league decider against the Banner. He was in Páirc Uí Chaoimh for their semi-final win victory over Limerick as well.
Kilkenny shared the league title with Galway in the Covid-impacted 2021 season but the last time they won a Division One final was in 2018, when Walsh scored 1-6 in the victory over Tipperary. And he feels it would be a significant achievement for the current crew of Cats to pick up a league crown.
“There are a lot of players on our team who haven’t got a National League medal,” he says.
“It’s a national final, so it’s massive, you want to win it. ‘It’s only the league’ is kind of talked about, but these are all games that teams are trying to win. You can look at it any way you want but you want to win every game you go out to play.
“No manager or team goes out to lose a game, the league is very important for us.
“The whole atmosphere around training is better when you’re winning. The championship being just around the corner is a bit of a narrative but when we’re playing on Saturday, we’re not going to be thinking about playing Antrim in a couple of weeks.
“That’s not going to be part of the conversation, I’m sure it’ll be the same with Clare, they won’t be talking about playing Limerick. They’ll be going out to win the game.”
Meanwhile, Lee Chin has returned to full training with the Wexford hurlers in advance of their Leinster championship opener against Dublin on April 21st.
Chin suffered a hamstring strain during Wexford’s round-three league draw with over Clare, which resulted in him hobbling off during the first half of that encounter, and he missed the remainder of the Model County’s league campaign.
However, Chin has resumed full training and will be available for Keith Rossiter when Wexford welcome the Dubs to the southeast.
“The body is fine at the moment,” says Chin. “I suppose the setback in the hamstring is due to an injury a couple of years ago with the PCL [posterior cruciate ligament]) in my knee.
“The hamstring probably comes under a bit of pressure with that now and again and there’s no real pattern to why it happens. It’s just a certain movement that kind of irritates the hamstring because of the elasticity in the knee. But all is well at the minute and I’m improving things on that end.”
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