LIMERICK ARE COUNTING the cost of tonight’s three-point win over Waterford after losing Cian Lynch to a hamstring injury in the opening half. 

The Treaty withheld a late Waterford fightback to take their second victory of the Munster SHC round robin, but the injury to centre-forward Cian Lynch will be of major concern to manager John Kiely. 

“It’s a hamstring most likely. We’ll have to wait and see,” was Kiely’s assessment after the game.

Lynch went down holding his hamstring after nine minutes and limped off the field, replaced by Cathal O’Neill who fired over three points. 

“Even with the injuries, Cian getting injured, you have to reset and go again,” continued Kiely. “Cathal came off the bench and did a great job for us. We got a significant impact off our bench now for the two games thus far which has been very, very pleasing.”

Limerick were also without Kyle Hayes, Seamus Flanagan and Peter Casey. Hayes and Flanagan stand the best chance of returning in time for their next game against Tipperary in two weeks, but Kiely remained tightlipped on their availability. 

“I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see who’s able to get back on the training field for at least two sessions before the Tipp game. At the very least they have to be back on the pitch by next Saturday night.

“So we’ll give them another week. We have a week so we’ll try get them on the pitch hopefully next Saturday night and we’ll see where they go from there. We’re not going to take any chances with fellas at this stage of the season.

“It’s a short season as it is, so you could take a chance and he could miss a very substantial and important part of the season. So for us it’s about ensuring that whoever togs out on the day is fit and healthy.”

The sides were level after 53 minutes but Limerick hit seven unanswered scores in nine minutes to take control of the game. They appeared to be strolling to victory when Waterford struck a pair of goals to ensure a cagey finale. 

“They got two goals quickly which can rock a team,” said Kiely. “But this team is very experienced now and when teams have their purple patch and make it count like that, I’d back our guys to keep a cool head and to be able to cope with that.

“That’s exactly what they did. They didn’t panic, they kept doing the right thing with the ball, they kept trying to play it through the lines and get it to the next man on. They fought really valiantly.

“To win dirty ball in the last four or five minutes. We created the last four scoring chances. I know we didn’t convert them but we created them. We should have seen it out by three or four but we’ll take what we got.”