Limerick hurling manager John Kiely issues squad update ahead of Munster final

LIMERICK senior hurling manager John Kiely has reported a fully fit squad ahead of next week's Munster final with Cork. Manager John Kiely confirmed Shane O'Brien is back training and available for selection. The Kilmallock clubman was forced off through injury against Clare last weekend. 

"Shane O'Brien got a dead leg, he trained on Wednesday night, he's fine," said John Kiely at the launch of the Munster senior hurling championship final in the TUS Gaelic Grounds. 

The Limerick manager said the provincial hurling final is a special occasion. 

"It's the showcase sporting event for Munster, as somebody who loves the game of hurling the Munster final is a really special occasion and has always been right throughout my lifetime. Everybody wants to be part of it when you're inter-county hurler so I'm delighted for the lads that they have got another chance to participate in this year's final. We just really want to be at our best if we can because it's a day you want to be at your best."

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Kiely decided to give the players a break this week, with the squad only resuming training on Wednesday night.

"When you get an opportunity, it's such a condensed season you have to seize every single opportunity and a day in itself is a great opportunity just to stretch it out from a Tuesday to a Wednesday can actually be hugely beneficial to the lads just to get those couple of days to switch off, relax, let their bodies heal, clear their minds and come back to it fresh."

Last Sunday saw Declan Hannon, Darragh O'Donovan, Cathal O'Neill, Peter Casey and Seamus Flanagan start a game for the first in the Munster SHC in Limerick's defeat to Clare.

"It was great to get gametime into a lot of lads who hadn't got much gametime throughout the round-robin. You can play all the in-house games you want but you can't replicate a championship environment, it's just different - you don't have 35,000 people there. You don't have an opposition who are from a different county, you can't replicate it, you try to make it as close as possible but you can't make it exactly the same.

"So, to get that gametime into those guys, more gametime into guys who had been playing some of the games before that who had a disjointed spring due to injury. All those pieces are positives that we got out of the last day," added Kiely.