Conor Counihan will announce the Cork team on Thursday night to face Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final, but has admitted that it could be changed before throw-in on Sunday due to injury concerns over key players.
Counihan is sweating on the fitness of Graham Canty, who damaged his hamstring in the All-Ireland quarter-final and Ciaran Sheehan, who picked up a knee injury in the same game.
Sheehan is thought to have an excellent chance of making the starting line-up for the clash against the Dubs, but Canty remains a major doubt.
“The reality of the situation is that we’re picking a team now but that may not be the team that starts because of injuries,” said Counihan.
“We just don’t know yet with the two lads. They could need the time between now and the weekend to get right. We hope that a clearer picture will emerge closer to the game.”
“The biggest factor for us this year has been injuries. You just didn’t know who you had and when you had them,†he added.
Even with Canty and Sheehan remaining doubtful, there will be serious competition for places in the Rebel fifteen, with John Miskella, Nicholas Murphy and Alan and Donncha O’Connor all pushing hard for starting places, while dual star Eoin Cadogan is also available following the Cork hurlers’ exit from the championship at the hands of Kilkenny.
Counihan acknowledged that when everyone is fit, he is presented with a big selection headache, but it is a headache he is glad to have. He also admitted that his side have not been firing on all cylinders throughout the season.
“It would be a great headache to have everyone fit for Sunday,†he said.
“It would present us with a problem but it’s a problem we’d love. Some guys are capable of playing 30 minutes, not 70 – do you start them, do you bring them in?”
“You get 70 minutes on the day to get it right and we haven’t played as well or as attractively as last year, but perhaps some teams have set themselves up to stop that in a way.
“Defensively we are conceding less than we were last year and I’d say we’ve had patches in all the games where we did play well. The issue for us is that we didn’t sustain it over a longer period of time.”
