Injuries are an unfortunate, and often inevitable part of sport, but the news that David Burke has been ruled out for the rest of the Galway senior hurler’s season due to a cruciate ligament injury picked up in training last week placed a dark cloud over the team’s final league game away to Westmeath.
There was much relief among supporters in January when Henry Shefflin revealed the 33-years-old was committing to another season with the panel, but now the St Thomas’ clubman, who made his Galway debut in 2010 - and is the county’s all-time record appearance holder in the All-Ireland championship - will be sidelined for some time.
Generally regarded as a hugely important leader and standard-setter within the group, Burke had made his seasonal debut only last weekend when thrown in as a late substitute in the win over Clare. His classy stickwork and ability to read a game are arguably unmatched in the county, and hopefully Galway has not seen the last of the 2017 All-Ireland winning captain in a maroon jersey.
A much-changed Galway team made light work of Westmeath in the end, running out 4-27 to 1-12 victors on a damp day in Mullingar.
Ronan Glennon, who was surprisingly one of the few players not to score, faced off against his brother Davy, who is still lining out for the midlanders, but it was Conor Cooney who again did most of the damage in the first half with four points from play.
Brian Concannon added a major before the break, while Galway added three further second-half goals through Tiernan Killeen, Declan McLoughlin, and Jason Flynn.
Daithí Burke enjoyed valuable game time in defence, while Evan Niland continued his decent form from placed balls, but all focus now turns to the Leinster Championship opener on April 22.
Both Galway and Wexford have equal time to prepare for this fixture, with Darragh Egan’s side dealing with plenty of injury problems of their own. Nine of the team who played Clare in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final were absent from last Sunday’s eleven-point loss to Limerick.
The status of Liam Ryan, Matthew O’Hanlon, and Conor McDonald appear to be the most pressing concerns with four weeks of preparation time left, but Egan will surely have his side primed for a cut at Galway, with games against Antrim and Dublin to follow.
With Dublin very much in rebuild mode after a number of retirements, Galway will want to send out a signal of their intentions for the year with a dominant performance on their home turf. Shefflin will be hoping that between now and then there will be no further injury concerns to deal with.
Galway: E Murphy; D Morrissey, D Burke, TJ Brennan (0-1 ); P Mannion (0-1 ), J Fitzpatrick, T Killeen (1-0 ); C Fahy (0-1 ), R Glennon; John Cooney (0-2 ), L Collins (0-1 ), C Cooney (0-5 ); E Niland (0-11, 8fs, 1 ’65 ), B Concannon (1-1 ), K Cooney (0-1 ). Subs :D McLoughlin (1-1 ) for Collins (46 ), J Flynn (1-1 ) for C Cooney (54 ), G Lee (0-1 ) for John Cooney (63 ), Joseph Cooney for Glennon (63 ), D O'Shea for Concannon (65 ).
