CLARE CORNER back Gerry O'Grady is winning his battle to be fit for Sunday's Munster hurling final, while Tipperary's centre back Conor O'Mahony remains a major concern.
Clare captain Brian O'Connell said yesterday O'Grady was "95 per cent" right, but Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy will not make a final call on O'Mahony until the weekend.
O'Grady experienced some pain during Clare's semi-final victory over Limerick, having had the cast removed from his broken right hand just days before the game.
The Crusheen clubman originally sustained the injury against Waterford in the quarter-final but lined out against Limerick just three weeks later.
The problem was aggravated when O'Grady was hit on his damaged hand but O'Connell is confident his team-mate will start against Tipperary:
"Gerry is pure honest and if he's not right, he will tell the management. He still has five days."
O'Connell also confirmed Tony Griffin, who came off early against Limerick with a hamstring injury, has recovered and is therefore expected to start in attack.
Tipperary captain Paul Ormond admitted O'Mahony remained a "major concern". The man-of-the-match from the semi-final victory over Cork was unable to train with the county team last week after damaging the A/C shoulder joint on club duty with Newport last Saturday week. Ormond said: "We won't know until Thursday or Friday. It's a major concern because Conor has had a good year. He's really coming into himself at centre back over the last two years. He's developing, he's a big strong fella and he can hurl."
If O'Mahony doesn't start, All Star Declan Fanning is tipped to fill the number six shirt. An alternative is to move Shane Maher from left wing back to the centre, with Benny Dunne or Diarmaid Fitzgerald coming in on the flank.
But Ormond said: "Diarmaid Fitz picked up a foot injury in the last week and we won't know until the weekend about him either."
Substitute Ormond admitted that looking on from the sidelines had been difficult but the 2001 All-Ireland medallist was prepared to be patient: "Nobody is happy just to be there," he conceded. "It's still July and I hope it's a long way until September. You have to get yourself right and if a sub is needed or there's an injury, then you're ready. But of course I want to be in; it's no fun sitting on the bench."
O'Connell, meanwhile, is relishing the prospect of his first Munster final. Clare have been absent from the big day since 1999 and the Wolfe Tones clubman paid tribute to manager Mike McNamara for steadying the ship following a turbulent 2007 under Tony Considine.
"Last year we had too many incidents of minor arguments within the group blowing up in our faces. Mike said: 'look, we can't have any more of this fooling around and distractions'.
"(Former manager) Anthony Daly started this ball rolling. There were a lot of changes with lads coming in and lads reaching the end of their careers. Anthony did everything in his power for us to be successful but I think there might have been too many changes at the time and the timing was wrong. With Mike Mac, the timing is spot on."
