In what might be the only 3,000-mile commute of the summer, Johnny Glynn could end up dividing his time between New York and Galway in order to serve his county’s hurling cause.
Having spent much of the last year in New York, playing with the city’s footballers last summer, Glynn is back home this week as Galway take on Limerick in the Allianz Hurling League semi-final.
According to team-mate Pádraic Mannion, speaking at a league press event in Thurles, Glynn is hoping to be part of the Galway panel for the summer, even while making a few return trips to New York.
“Yeah, we trained last night (Monday), and he was in with us,” said Mannion. “We all had club championship at the weekend, so it was more of a recovery session than anything. I’m not 100 percent sure of the arrangement at the moment. He might have to go back the odd time, over the summer, but he’s going to be mostly at home. I didn’t think it would work if he was flying home for every game, or every training. That’s not what the arrangement is going to be.
“It’s a great boost to have him back into the squad. Johnny in 2015, his last year in with us, was a massive part of the team. To hear he’s coming back being involved is a massive boost for the camp.”
Ball winning ability
“A player like that, you can’t really replace him, but then we didn’t have a terrible year last year either.We were unlucky in the semi-final, beaten by a good Tipp team that went on to win the All-Ireland. It’s a massive boost to have him back, his ball winning ability, and he even pops up with score as well, it’s massive to have into the squad.”
Galway pressed Tipperary every step of the way in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, before losing out to the eventual champions by a single point: might Glynn, one of their most potent forwards, have made the difference?
“Yeah, he could have been, but when you look at it, we still had some lads out there that was still doing the business. But, even at his age, he’s only 23, 24 I think, he has massive experience and for a player like that to be coming back into the knockout stages of the league and into the championship, even for the younger lads, a player like that to come in is massive.
“I used to mark him in training a good bit all right and yeah, he’s a handful, even physically the size of him. He’s very good in the air as well. I wouldn’t fancy marking him too often anyway.”
Canning return
Also back fully fit for Sunday’s showdown at the Gaelic Grounds is Joe Canning, who missed the early rounds of the league with a major hamstring tear going back to that Tipp game.
“It was a very serious injury. Having a player like Joe on his game is massive because he even improves lads around him. At the time, on the day of the injury, we probably didn’t know how serious it was until afterwards.
“Joe being Joe was back even before time. It’s massive to have him back, and I know we started the league without him, but to have him coming back especially into the knockout stages and building for the championship is massive.
“On any given day you can lose any player, but again I don’t know was it the winning or losing of the game either. Because you can’t be relying on certain players day in, day out. You need the panel, you need the 20 players every day to be able to step up to the mark”.
