Shefflin injury

adrian522

Looks like Shefflin will miss at least 6 months ....

Henry Shefflin will have to undergo surgery on a shoulder injury and is likely to be absent for six months as a result. Is this the end for perhaps the greatest player of all time?

Shefflin sustained the injury in the Kilkenny SHC semi-final against O’Loughlin Gaels last month, but as is his style, he battled through the pain to take part in the County Final and subsequent replay against James Stephens, where his club, Ballyhale Shamrocks, came out on the losing side.

Shefflin’s spell on the sidelines means he is certain to miss the Cats’ National League campaign, while his record of starting every Championship game under Brian Cody would also seem to be under threat.

"Henry injured his shoulder against O’Loughlin Gaels in the county semi-final," Ballyhale chairman Sean Reid said yesterday.

"He was able to play on that day, and he played against James Stephens in the final and the replay as well, but he’ll have to have an operation on it soon and he’s likely to miss out on at least six months as he recovers.

"That means we’ll be without him here in the club for the early part of the county championship, and Kilkenny look like they won’t have him at all for the national hurling league, because even if he had the operation right now you’d be talking about May or maybe June before he’d be right."

Shefflin’s powers of recovery are known to be Lazarus-like, but one wonders how long he can continue to keep coming back from such setbacks, especially as he turns 33 in January. He attempted to play through a cruciate knee ligament injury in the 2010 All-Ireland Hurling Final but was withdrawn early on, while he ruptured the cruciate ligament in the other knee three years previously.

Shefflin picked up his eighth All-Ireland winner’s medal in September and a record tenth All-Star last month, a career record that would be enough to sate the appetite of three or four men, never mind one individual.

Most mortals at the stage of their career that Shefflin is currently at would be content to ride off into the sunset, but that’s not Henry’s way. We expect that we haven’t seen the last of him yet.

http://joe.ie/gaa/gaa-news/is-this-the-end-for-king-henry-shefflin-0018021-1

dastardly00

I kind of find similarities with Henry's situation to that of Brian O' Driscoll.
There is no point in battling on through the pain and it may end up prolonging their careers.

In Henry's case, he recovers for the next few months and this also gives his knees a bit of a rest. Then, hopefully he might be back fully fit for the latter stages of the championship, and he'll be chomping at the bit.

There is no doubt that KK are not the same team without Henry, but it does give players the opportunity to try and fill the role that Henry leaves, i.e. playmaker, organiser, and free-taker.

Henry won't last forever, but it's better that he's missing at the early stages, rather like last year.

STIG83

If this is the end of him, will be hard to fill his place, they will never be a player like him again.

padd b1975

Very sad to see Father time catch up on him.
Better than DJ in my opinion.