Cathal Mannion sounds warning to Galway teammates ahead of Leinster hurling final after putting injury hell behind him

The Irish Sun

4 days ago

GOING under the knife during the off-season has paved the way for Galway's Cathal Mannion to look sharper than ever.
Having been an All-Star in 2015, a second award could be on the cards a decade later if the Ahascragh-Fohenagh forward carries his form into the All-Ireland series.
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Cathal Mannon of Galway in attendance at the Leinster GAA Senior Hurling Championship Final preview media event at Croke Park
Credit: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
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Cathal Mannion in action for Galway against Dublin
Credit: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
Mannion, 30, has been the
driving
force behind the Tribesmen's run to
Now in his 12th season on the senior inter-county beat, the secondary
school
teacher has been achieving top marks since addressing an injury that plagued him for far too long.
Mannion made his 60th
Championship
appearance in last month's win over
He said: 'My Achilles was at me for three years probably and then I was getting other injuries from that.
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'As a player, it's hugely frustrating when you can't get a run, so I had probably two years of just on-and-off injuries. I got a bit of a procedure done in the
winter
and it's definitely helped and cleared it up.
'You're putting all your
weight
on it so as a result I was pulling hamstrings and so on. You couldn't get a run, you'd feel you're coming back and then you'd get another setback. I'm delighted to have it behind me hopefully.'
In their bid to rebound from a hugely disappointing 2024 season,
He added: 'When you're missing large chunks of the season, you come back way hungrier. And probably as you get older, you know what you can and can't do.
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'It's just experience, I suppose. This is the time of year you want to be right and perform the best you can.'
Ensuring that his contribution is manifested on the scoreboard has seldom been a struggle for Mannion who has hit 1-21 from play in his six competitive outings this season.
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But his overall tallies have swelled since he was invited to venture into unfamiliar territory as a placed-ball specialist.
Mannion admitted: 'Even for my club I didn't take too many frees — an odd time here and there. They just said, 'Will you take them?' and I said I would.
'I started to practise them a lot and started putting more time into them. Frees are important and particularly as the season goes on you need to be scoring the frees, so I'll try to continue to keep improving.'
Galway's average margin of victory was 17 points as they overcame
And they maintained the winning habit last time out, avenging the season-ending defeat of last
summer
by beating
However,
And Mannion is sending a black and amber warning to his team-mates ahead of this weekend's trip to HQ.
He reflected: 'We didn't perform as well as we wanted to against Kilkenny the first day. The result reflected that.
'We had Offaly the week after, which was probably a good thing as regards you move on fairly quickly.
'We got a few wins and it gives you a bit of momentum but Kilkenny on Sunday will be a bigger challenge than what we faced earlier this year.'
For Mannion, a third Leinster medal — and a first in seven years — is on the line.
The 2017 All-Ireland winner also likes the look of the direct ticket to the last four of the
race
for the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
He added: 'We haven't many Leinster titles in our panel so it's definitely one we're going after.
'Obviously you have a prize of a Leinster final, but you also have a prize of going forward to an All-Ireland semi-final.'