​By John Harrington

Henry Shefflin has hailed the continued importance of veteran attacker Eoin Larkin to the Kilkenny cause.

Larkin, who recently returned from UN peacekeeping duty in Syria, scored 0-7 (0-5 from play) for James Stephens in their 1-14 to 0-13 club championship victory over Rower-Inistioge on Saturday.

“He is massive,” said Shefflin. “Brian (Cody) has great faith in him. There’s a lot of talk about systems but Eoin brings savage work rate to it. He is playing corner-forward but he travels out and puts a lot of pressure on a defence so he is a big, big player.

“Even moreso this year with Richie Power not there and Ger Aylward with the cruciate. Having a specialised corner-forward for Kilkenny is very important. He’s a massive player and a massive leader. We all saw him in the All-Ireland final with that workrate last year.

“That’s what he brings to the game. He is a great man travelling with the ball as well. It is great to have him back. He was away overseas but with the warm weather over there he had plenty of time to train so I would imagine he is probably in good condition and looking forward to the championship good and fresh.”

Shefflin has no doubts about Larkin’s ability to hit the ground running in the Championship despite missing their Allianz League campaign because of his tour of duty in Syria.

“He is very strong mentally. He broke his thumb last year and I remember sending him a message wishing him the best and hoping he would get back and he said ‘I will be back’. That was his message in his reply so mentally he is very strong.

“He didn’t play for two or three months after with that thumb and then he played in an All-Ireland final like that. Some players, like myself, might think ‘Jeez, I’m not playing’, but he is mentally very strong.”

Kilkenny will play the winners of Saturday’s clash between Wexford and Dublin in the Leinster semi-final, and Shefflin believes that is a hard game to call because both teams have a lot to prove.

“I know the last day they (Wexford) got a big backlash against Waterford – they nearly pipped them in the League quarter-final - but I think there is pressure on. We expected a lot from them last year and they just didn’t deliver. So I think there is pressure. But I think there is pressure on Dublin also.

“It’s a peculiar one. No one really knows what way it’s going to go. I just think you need everything going right for you. There’s been a few blips. Liam (Dunne) going away. Ger Cunningham…Danny Sutcliffe isn’t on the panel. So I just think that these teams need absolutely everything going right for them and it just doesn’t seem to be flowing for either of them at the moment. Now whether a win next weekend will give them a bit of confidence…it’s hard to see.”

Henry Shefflin, Seamus Hickey, Podge Collins and Austin Gleeson were at Centra’s Live Well hurling launch in CLG Na Fianna which included the announcement that the retailer will continue its sponsorship of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship up to 2019. As part of this year’s campaign Centra has introduced a series of #GetActive hurling challenges to encourage fans of all ages to pick up a hurl, test their skills and upload their videos to win big prizes. For more information on how to take part go to www.centra.ie or follow Centra Ireland on social media.***