Clare hurlers Conor McGrath, Ian Galvin and Jamie Shanahan ruled out of championship
Tuesday 30 April 2019 14:01, UK
The Clare hurlers must plan for the summer without the services of Conor McGrath, Ian Galvin and Jamie Shanahan.
The trio have been ruled out by joint-manager Gerry O'Connor, who was speaking at Monday's launch of the Munster Senior Championship.
Shanahan has undergone back surgery, McGrath has had a shoulder operation and Galvin has suffered an arm injury.
The Banner open their campaign away to Waterford on May 12.
Meanwhile, there is better news as 2018 All-Star John Conlon returns from injury, and Shane O'Donnell has come back from Boston to join up with the squad.
"It was probably his first year putting in a decent pre-season," O'Connor said of the 2013 hat-trick hero. "He would have linked up with Kelvin our strength and conditioning guy and they would have been in constant contact in terms of the gym program he was expected to follow and he came back in great shape.
"Shane is such an intelligent and completely unique guy that very few people would be able to come back and do what he did and very few people in the first place would have been asked to go and do what he did, but from our perspective he has added a great leadership quality to the dressing room.
"[O'Donnell and Conlon] have given us a new dimension in terms of attacking threat that we wouldn't have seen in the latter stages of the National League."
Although the Banner are significantly depleted, O'Connor feels there is a silver lining in that younger players will be given the chance to impress:
"They are all gone so that's a significant loss, but we probably wouldn't have got as much game time into Diarmuid Ryan, Aidan McCarthy and Shane Golden if those guys were around. That's the nature of team sport. One guy gets injured and another gets the chance to show what he can do."
Sky Sports' live GAA coverage gets under way on Saturday May 11 as Dublin face Kilkenny in the Leinster Hurling Championship opener. You can also stay up to date with all the action by following us @SkySportsGAA and get all the latest news, previews and interviews www.skysports.com/gaa
