Tipperary star hopeful of Cathal Barrett return in 2018

The hurling word was sent into a whirlwind.

Cathal Barrett was going to be ruled out for most of the championship after injuring his knee against Cork in the Munster Championship. But then it emerged that the 2016 All-Star had been dropped from the squad by manager Michael Ryan. No details have emerged as to why other than that it was for disciplinary issues that he was dropped and Ryan made it clear later on in 2017 that he would not be returning to the squad, But Michael Cahill is hopeful that Barrett will return. The Thurles Sarsfields' man was in Croke Park to announce the launch of AIG Fenway Classic where his Tipperary team will be travelling to Boston to compete alongside Clare, Galway and Dublin and was optimistic about a return for Barrett:

"I haven’t heard anything yet. I suppose that’s down to the management to call him in and out but it’d be nice to see Cathal back in," he said.

 

"You want to see your best players hurling any day you go out and in fairness to Cathal before he got injured and in the last couple of years, he is probably the best cornerback in the country from what I can see anyway.

 

"He’s a hardy boy and he’s well able to hurl, he’s the type of lad you want playing on big match days as well so I’d say he’ll get the call but we don’t know yet really where he stands.

It’s a shock to the system not having him around at that time but you just have to put it behind you.

 

"There are always lads coming at your heels and there are always lads ahead of you, I found myself down the list. I was chasing lads really, I wasn’t even chasing Cathal at the time I was chasing another two or three fellas that were ahead of me a lot of the year so you just have to focus on yourself and you can’t let whatever is going on around that influence you," Cahill concluded.