Leahy likely to win race for fitness

John Leahy is confident of being fit in time for Tipperary's clash with Clare in the All-Ireland hurling final in spite of having sustained a hairline fracture of his left cheek bone in Sunday's semi-final against Wexford.

Leahy was taken to a hospital in Dublin after Sunday's match and there was much relief in the Tipperary camp when an X-ray revealed that, although the bone was fractured there was no displacement and that surgery would not be necessary. Leahy will now be allowed time to recover from the dramatic injury which forced his retirement after 51 minutes of the game, before resuming training. The county's win over the All-Ireland champions has presented Tipperary with something of a dilemma, since they are due to face Galway next Saturday evening in a National League semi-final in Ennis.

While the prospect of bringing off a National League and All-Ireland double is attractive, the selectors must make up their minds about whether or not they will field several of the players who lined out on Sunday. As things stand, Leahy is the only player ruled out through injury and the selectors could decide to field their strongest side, with that one exception. The other option is to give several other players an opportunity to make a bid for a place in the All-Ireland final. Among these are many who have been regulars on the team in the recent past, such as Liam Cahill and Aidan Ryan, who were brought on as substitutes on Sunday. Also challenging for places will be vastly experienced players such as Paul Delaney, George Frend and Raymie Ryan. Others on the bench on Sunday were Aidan Flanagan, a former captain of the side, Kevin Tucker and Aidan Butler.

The squad is expected to get together later in the week to review the situation, while the manager, Len Gaynor, will apply himself to the task of getting the team into the right frame of mind for the league semi-final. Gaynor may have to use all his persuasiveness to get his players to concentrate on the Galway match following on the euphoria which surrounded their victory over Wexford. The county board will also be conscious of the fact that reaching the National League final is financially very lucrative. Clare, meanwhile, have a clean bill of health. Fergie Tuohy is back in training and is expected to make a bold bid to reclaim the place he lost to Niall Gilligan after being declared unfit on the eve of the semi-final against Kilkenny. Kilkenny's selectors will meet later in the week to name their side for their National League semi-final against Limerick in Nowlan Park on Sunday. Definitely out of contention are Liam Simpson and Michael Phelan, who missed the match against Clare with hamstring injuries. Also out for some time will be former All Star, John Power. He collapsed and was taken to hospital after an intermediate championship match between John Locke's and Shamrocks-Ballyhale. He is undergoing medical tests in an attempt to identify the problem.