Clare concern over Lohan injury

Concern is mounting in Clare that the county's iconic full back Brian Lohan may have sustained a bad knee injury. Although he played on through the 70 minutes against Tipperary, tests later this week will determine the extent of the damage.

"Brian hurt his knee and we'll have an idea of how badly by the end of the week," according to Clare manager Cyril Lyons. "At the moment we don't know whether he just twisted it or if it's more serious."

There hasn't been much time for Lyons to bask in Sunday's success. With Cork less than three weeks away, Clare's manager is sifting through the wreckage of his defence.

At the weekend it was Tipperary who had to play minus half of their first-choice defence with full back Philip Maher out with cruciate ligament damage, wing back Eamonn Corcoran suspended and corner back Paul Ormonde still recovering from long-term injury.

Ironically, Clare are facing almost the exact same dimension of problems. Lohan awaits his scan and wing back David Hoey nurses a broken ankle. Captain Seán McMahon faces a lengthy suspension for striking with the hurl.

"It was a big disappointment that Seánie was sent off," Lyons said. "In terms of preparation he's been working since last November. As soon as the draw was made he put in a superhuman effort. In the league he wasn't going well but that was because of the effort he was putting in - outside of what he was doing with us.

"Seánie's played in over 30 championship matches and two All-Ireland club finals and has never been sent off. An awful lot of those matches were high pressure and high intensity because opposing teams knew that if you could outfox Seánie you could beat Clare. That's the sort of pressure he played under for years and never got into trouble."

Otherwise, there is a great sense of satisfaction in the county after reversing so emphatically the trend of the current decade, which has seen Clare lose to Tipperary in their first Munster outing every summer for the past three years. The result may have been paramount but the scale of the victory was just as sweet.

"We felt going into this that if we got an early lead we could put pressure onto them," said Lyons. "I only heard later that we actually lost the toss because we wanted wind advantage in the first half and build a lead.

"We were aware that all three of the Tipperary full-back line were playing there for the first time in a championship match. It was a windy day and we thought we could get scores and force them into mistakes and conceding frees.

"They got two quick scores after half-time but then missed an easy free. They needed a run of scores or a goal but instead we settled with two points of our own and they never got closer than eight points and that was a constant encouragement to keep up the pressure and put in the tackles."

Rejoicing in Clare has been slightly soured by the poor turnout of supporters. It was as if, having lost confidence in the team's ability to win the match, the hurling public simply abandoned them.

On RTÉ former manager Ger Loughnane made the point that players who had brought two All-Irelands - and a final appearance last September - to the county deserved better. Lyons is more conciliatory. "I think the fixture had lost its appeal. Every fixture has a shelf life and this has worn down with every year. There were also problems with the venue.

"If Limerick had been able to take the fixture there would have been 40,000 there. The Gaelic Grounds are an hour from Clare and an hour from Tipperary.

"Putting myself in the supporters' shoes, I'd have to think twice about whether I wanted to spend 10 or 12 hours getting there and back - because that's what it took. Also Clare had a poor league and Tipperary had a tremendous league. The expectation was that Tipperary would win and win well."

If Sunday was gratifying for the displays of the two debutants, Andy Quinn at full forward and Diarmuid McMahon at centrefield, there was maybe even greater joy at the return of the prodigal talents of players like James O'Connor, Niall Gilligan and Alan Markham.

"I suppose one problem was that some Clare players had had bad games against Tipperary recently," said Lyons. "In the 1990s the same thing happened the other way around and Tipp got over it. We have worked hard and analysed it to cover as many angles as possible. You do all those things but you still can't be sure.

"For Jamesie and a few others to have played well for 70 minutes of championship hurling will be massively important. The last two years we lost by one and two points and those fellas had to put up with the talk around the county that if only so-and-so had played five per cent better it might have made the difference."

And overall the panel will move even faster in the slipstream of such a significant success.

"I think we learned in the 90s that winning tight championship matches did wonders for morale and even the quality of training would pick up. This team has now won a crucial game and will come back stronger mentally."