It will be the first time in 15 years Henry Shefflin will miss a Championship game. He'll miss the Leinster SHC quarter-final against Offaly because of a stress fracture in his left foot.
This is the same foot that Shefflin had surgery on in December. He had to sit out the entire Allianz League campaign while he was recovering.
In this latest setback, Shefflin injured his metatarsal during light training and an MRI scan on Monday showed a Lisfranc injury. This is not good news for Shefflin.
Shefflin, 34, has been itching to return to action and extend his record of 62 successive Championship matches with the Kilkenny senior hurlers. He was also hoping to have a short run-out with his club Ballyhale Shamrocks this past week, but Shefflin has resigned himself to sitting on the sidelines.
Shefflin spoke at the launch of the Lucozade Sports Club Crusade, saying, "I'm not going to lie and say I wouldn't love to play in it (the Offaly match on June 9th). Of course I would. But I would have said it this time last year, there's no point in playing unless you're right. And I'm not right so there's no point, that's basically it. That'll be it, it will be over and you move on with the next match. So it doesn't really matter to me that much (the ending of his record run of Championship starts)."
The 2012 Hurler of the Year came back from two cruciate knee ligament injuries in recent seasons as well as a serious shoulder injury. At the beginning of the year he spent time in the hospital with pneumonia.
The air cast boot which Shefflin was seen in from his recovery from surgery last winter will make a reappearance as he recovers from this latest injury.
"It's the early stages of a stress fracture which is good, there's no crack or anything. It's just resting up for a few weeks and, hopefully, then bang on again. That's the plan. With the original injury I had, my foot wasn't on the ground for three or four months so it means your foot isn't used to training and it just reacts. I was doing a bit of training for the last couple of weeks since I got the pins out. Over the weekend, it reacted a small bit. I was in to see the surgeon on Monday and that's why I'm back in the boot," Shefflin said.
The nine-time All-Ireland winner is doubtful for a potential Leinster semi-final on June 23rd with the provincial divider scheduled for July 7th.
"I'm due back in to the surgeon in about two or three weeks' time. I'll see what the prognosis is then, how things are going. It's just rest- same as anyone with a stress fracture. It's on the metatarsal. A lot of people thought it was my ankle, but it wasn't, it was a Lisfranc injury, which is basically my midfoot. It's uncommon enough but the stress fracture is on the top of one of my metatarsals, going into my toes.
"It's going to be very much 'wait and see' and once I get back I have to be careful again and just build it up right. Match fitness is going to be an issue because that's what you need to build up. You can do as much training and running up and down the sideline as you can but match fitness is an issue. But again, maybe you could say you'll be fresh, but it's very much a wait and see kind of job at this stage," Shefflin said.
Reference: Irish Examiner
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