John Kiely: ‘We’re going to give him every chance’
By Cian O’Connell
Limerick manager John Kiely says captain Declan Hannon will be given ‘every chance’ to feature in the All-Ireland SHC Final against Kilkenny.
Hannon missed Saturday’s penultimate round victory over Galway at Croke Park with a knee injury.
“Obviously with a player like Declan we’re going to give him every chance, but this week will give us an insight to where he’s at,” Kiely remarked at a press briefing at TUS Gaelic Grounds on Monday evening.
“I know there’s work that he’s going to go doing tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday so we just have to see does he incrementally move through those, if you like, expectations or milestones.
“There’s various things that he needs to tick so, listen, we can only take one at a time, see how it goes, because a setback is a setback, but we’ll just give him a chance.”
Kiely is hopeful Hannon, who has hoisted the Liam MacCarthy four times in the last five years, will be available for selection.
“Declan is so experienced we can afford to give him the time,” Kiely adds.
“It’s like Michael Fennelly, we can literally afford to take the full length of time to leave it happen because we don’t have to worry about him in terms of his preparation because he’s so experienced, but – at the same time – you want to have a fully fit panel of 26 players available on the day.
“It potentially could go to extra time so everybody that’s in the 26 has to be able to perform, has to be able to contribute.”