Cathal Barrett
By John Harrington
Tipperary hurling manager Michael Ryan has confirmed that Cathal Barrett will not return to his panel in 2017.
Barrett has been out in the cold since be axed from the panel following Tipp’s Munster SHC Quarter-Final defeat to Cork for a breach of discipline, and that’s where he’ll stay until the end of this season at least.
When Ryan was asked at Tipperary’s All-Ireland semi-final press event in the Anner Hotel, Thurles yesterday whether Barrett would be brought back into the fold for the remainder of the championship or not, he made it very clear the Holycross-Ballycahill man was not in his plans.
“Just to nail that for everyone, there’s been a lot of speculation in the media over the last 24 to 48 hours,” said Ryan.
“What has been reported is accurate - our panel for 2017 is formed.
“There will be no more changes to the panel in 2017. That’s it and that’s the last I will say on that.”
Tipperary have just one serious injury concern ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway on August 6th.
Defender Joe O’Dwyer who missed the quarter-final win over Clare with an elbow injury which is still a concern.
“Yeah, that's my understanding as well now, Joe is the concern from the guys that lost out last week,” said Ryan.
“That’s one that caught us, we are watching that one. He just hurt his elbow playing the week before and ran out of time.
“We are anxiously watching Joe’s progress obviously we are hoping but we have to just wait and see. We have a very good medical team up there, we ask them to work miracles at times and they do.”
Clare v Tipperary - GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final
Seamus Callanan and Donagh Maher both picked up knocks in the win over Clare but are okay, and though John McGrath and Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher sat out training on Tuesday night, Ryan insisted that was just as a precaution.
“Yeah, what we had was, after any championship game sore bodies and knocks picked up. Look, nothing unusual in that.
“Our turnaround time is so short, we really have to be as efficient as we possibly can. We are always trying to be as efficient as we possibly can terms of trying to manage the boys, but it’s a feature. Trying to get fellas not to train these days is the problem.
“They would do anything to play, and particularly at the business end of the year. There’s no second chance saloon, you have to get on the pitch. In fairness our boys are really mature about it, they report their injuries very meticulously.
“They are very aware of their bodies too, ‘that’s a niggle or that’s a knock.’ They are very good in fairness.”
The Tipperary players will have had just two weeks to recover from their exertions against Clare before they face Galway on August 6th, but Ryan isn’t unduly concerned about the quick turn-around time.
“I think the first issue we might have faced is we might have had a round of club, which would have been worse.
“We would have gone from playing that game against Clare to possibly a round of club this weekend, and then a two-week break. It’s just another game on the system of these guys, and you are going to pick up some knocks or injuries.
“We have them exclusively for this two-week period, we are happy with that. We are under no illusions we are going into play one of the two form teams that are left at this point in time.
“You are not going to get a lot of work done, what you have you have. It’s really controlling the controllables for us now in terms of being fresh.”
