Waterford hurling, without the marquee names of yesteryear, can add Shane O'Sullivan to the unavailable list ahead of their Munster championship opener against Cork on May 25th.
O’Sullivan sought to overturn referee Johnny Ryan’s red card, handed out against Dublin on March 30th, for striking with minimal force, at a hearing last Monday evening.
The one-match ban stands, however, so the midfielder will join injured duo Stephen Daniels and Brian O’Halloran in the stands. New manager Derek McGrath is hoping further concerns around Jake Dillon (knee), Richie Foley, Stephen Bennett (both hips) and Maurice Shanahan (back) will clear up.
"In a county like Waterford, you need everyone fully fit," said Michael Walsh, the only survivor from the heady days of 2002. "We had a massive amount of injuries but that's not an excuse.
“It’s evolving the whole time. You would have seen it with Clare last year, their average age is probably 21 or 22 and that’s the way it’s gone. Well we’ve had very good underage players coming through in terms of colleges.
“We won a minor All-Ireland last year, we’ve had Munster success as well in the last couple of years as well and all those players are probably between 20 and 23 at this stage.
"Look, those players have huge talent but at the end of the day it's in the heat of battle that you get to know what they're all like and we've huge faith in what we have at the moment."
Training injury
Meanwhile, Clare will be without Shane O'Donnell for Sunday's league semi-final against Tipperary at the Gaelic grounds. O'Donnell, who cemented his place in the history books with a hat-trick against Cork in last year's All-Ireland final replay, pulled a hamstring in training. The teenager is also expected to miss the final, should Clare progress, against either Kilkenny or Galway.
“We reckon that Shane will be out for up to four weeks,” said selector Mike Deegan. “His big aim now is to be fit for the club championship on May 17th.”
Colm Galvin, Jamie Shanahan, Conor Cleary and Cathal O’Connell are expected to come back into contention for Sunday.
“We’ve had good days and bad days against Tipperary. The last day we played them, they were missing a few and we got a win over them. But the big thing is that we’ll see exactly where we stand heading into the summer.”
