Curley says side needs to go toe-to-toe with Kilkenny in Sunday’s Leinster hurling final

Captain David Collins looks set to miss out on Galway’s Leinster final showdown against All-Ireland champions Kilkenny at Croke Park this Sunday after sustaining a hamstring injury in training last week.

Although the Grade 2 tear on his lower hamstring has responded well to treatment and the Liam Mellows defender is not ruling himself out featuring at some stage, Collins says he will not endanger the team’s chances of victory by playing if he is not fully fit.

“You are usually looking three to four weeks before you go back full steam ahead with this injury, so I don’t know what my chances of playing the game are – we will see what happens.

“It has recovered well over the last week – I am positive enough about it – but unless I am 100% I am not going out there. I don’t fancy doing what Dublin did in terms of putting in an unfit player and look what happened there.”

Collins acknowledges that the injury blow has been very disappointing personally for him – it is not a scenario a player wants to deal with heading into a provincial final – but he says it is important to look at “the bigger picture”.

“When you see the guys who can come there, I have 100% faith in every one of those that they can fill in my position. Look it, personally, yeah, very disappointing. You don’t train all year long to miss the big days like this but we have the panel, we have the depth. There is no doubt about it, I have been on the Galway squad for 12 or 13 years now and this is the strongest panel I have been on.”

The front-runner to fill Collins position is former captain Fergal Moore, who will probably line out at corner-back with Johnny Coen or Padraig Mannion to move into Collins’ berth on the wing. Others sure to be in contention are Greg Lally, Gearoid McInerney and Paul Killeen.

Under no illusions as to what lies ahead facing the All-Ireland champions, Collins is positive about his side’s chances on the back of their two wins already.

“Kilkenny haven’t really been tested. They had a game against Wexford but I think Wexford were beaten before they went out.

“Kilkenny have strength in numbers and while everyone is talking about them missing JJ (Delaney) and (Henry) Shefflin, they won’t care about that. They have enough players there with form. In saying that, I think we have the players also that we need for this game.”

For  more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.