Healy heartache

GALWAY sharpshooter Niall Healy, who is sidelined for the rest of the year with a cruciate injury, believes his team-mates will have to be “wired to the moon” if they are to turn over Kilkenny in their Leinster semi-final at O’Connor Park, Tullamore on Sunday. That was the intense approach Galway adopted when conquering Kilkenny 2-21 to 2-11 in the 2012 Leinster decider – a game they had incredibly led 2-12 to 0-4 after a flawless first half. “That day against Kilkenny, they were wired to the moon going out,” says Healy. “I think they just have to get back to the same attitude as that. They just need to be wired up going out on Sunday, if they can. Whatever lads did two years ago, they have to get up to the same level. That is what they are going to need to do to beat Kilkenny.” Indeed, Galway have proven that they do have displays like that in their arsenal but the problem for the Tribesmen is that they have been unable to do produce these performances on a consistent basis. That has been the conundrum haunting Galway hurling since their last All-Ireland win in 1988. Healy, despite being to the forefront of Galway hurling for over a decade, is equally as perplexed by the mystery. “I don’t know. I suppose, there are guys on the panel who have had a lot of setbacks over the last few years and maybe that does be playing on the mind going out. It is hard to put your finger on it.” In any event, it’s doubtful any other inter-county hurler has been through the proverbial wringer as much as Galway’s 2004 minor captain when it comes to injuries over the last three years. In the darkest hours, the 29-year-old must wonder what he did to alienate the sporting gods. With hand and bicep injuries seriously disrupting his seasons in 2012 and ‘13 respectively, he could be forgiven for thinking the worst was behind him. However, a cruciate tear in a club game last month has cut short his playing year for club and county once again, much to the Craughwell man’s frustration. “It is very frustrating,” admits the former All-Ireland U-21 winner (2005). “If it happened in November, it mightn’t be too bad but it is just the time of the year. There is nothing better than going down to Kenny Park, training away on summer evenings, and it is very frustrating now not to be able to do that. “Things were going well for me but, I suppose, you can’t be feeling too sorry for yourself either. There are people worse off than me. I just have to get this operation done [with Ray Moran in Dublin] in two weeks’ time and then focus on getting ready for next year again.” For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.