Tipperary leave room for Dunne

Tipperary's Tommy Dunne will be given every opportunity to recover from his ankle injury as manager Michael Doyle has left a vacancy at centre back in his team to face Kilkenny in Sunday's All-Ireland hurling semi-final at Croke Park.

Dunne, who did not train last night at Semple Stadium, damaged ankle ligaments in the second half of the quarter-final win over Offaly on July 27th and has been having intensive treatment.

John Carroll, who also sustained an ankle injury that day, has been deemed fit and will start at centre-forward, with Conor Gleeson moving to full forward as Doyle reshuffles his forward lines.

One further change sees team captain Brian O'Meara resuming in his familiar number 12 berth after starting in the corner in the quarter-final. The slight changes will not be lost on Kilkenny who will name their team this evening.

Tippeary's chances of success are further increased by the fact that Kilkenny have not played since the Leinster final on July 6th, while Tipp have had two testing encounters, against Galway and Offaly. The Cork hurlers and the Galway footballers have already showed how difficult it is to get back up to full tilt after a substantial lay-off.

Meanwhile, as expected, Cork manager Donal O'Grady and his selectors have named an unchanged line-up for their semi-final replay against Wexford this Saturday at headquarters. His team has a clean bill of health.

The Cork minors have recalled four players to their side for the daunting showdown with reigning All-Ireland champions Kilkenny in their semi-final on Sunday. Asaki Ó hAilpín, Eoin Manning, Ronan Conway and Maurice O'Sullivan all come in.

Asaki, the third brother in the Cork hurling dynasty, came off the bench to strike a point in the quarter-final against Galway.

Their opponents, and hot favourites, have made two changes to their starting line-up and two further positional switches for the curtain raiser. Ray Wall comes into right corner forward for Maurice Nolan in a direct swap, while Pat Hartley replaces Austin Murphy, a change that sees inspirational captain Richie Power move to a more attacking role of centre-half forward.

James Fitzpatrick is named at full forward with David McCormack moving back to wing forward. But Fitzpatrick is considered extremely doubtful due a broken wrist he sustained three weeks ago playing for Ballyhale Shamrocks. He will undergo a fitness test on Friday evening.

O'Neills sports company have announced they are the new sponsors of the Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland football sevens tournament for the next three years. The tournament this year celebrates its 31st anniversary and is being held at Kilmacud's Glenalbyn grounds on Saturday, September 27th. The tournament has become the traditional curtain raiser on the eve of the All-Ireland football final.

Iarnród Éireann have arranged for two special trains to be made available for Cork supporters travelling to this Saturday's All-Ireland semi-final replay against Wexford. These are to coincide with the four scheduled trains already in place.

Tickets for this weekend's semi-finals will be on sale from the ticket office at the rear of the Cusack Stand on Thursday and Friday this week from 11 am to 7 pm.

TIPPERARY (SH v Kilkenny): B Cummins; T Costello, P Curran, M Maher; E Corcoran, AN Other, P Kelly; E Enright, B Dunne; M O'Leary, J Carroll, B O'Meara; E Kelly, C Gleeson, L Corbett.

CORK (SH v Wexford): D Og Cusack; W Sherlock, P Mulcahy, D O'Sullivan; T Kenny, R Curran, S Og O hAilpin; J Gardiner, M O'Connell; B O'Connor, N McCarthy, T McCarthy; S O hAilpin, J Deane, A Browne.

KILKENNY (MH v Cork): C Grant; S Cadigan, J Tennyson, J Dalton; P O'Donovan, D Cody, D Prendergast; M Fennelly, P Hartley; D McCormack, R Power (capt), A Healy; R Wall, J Fitzpatrick, E Guinan.

CORK (MH v Kilkenny): E O'Sullivan; E O'Sullivan, N Horgan, S O'Neill; S Cronin, M Aherne, B Clifford; B Coleman, E Manning; M Harrington, K Canty, R Conway; M O'Sullivan, B Barry, A O hAilpin.