GALVIN FITZ RIGHT BACK IN TO CLARE
DAVY FITZGERALD has enthusiastically welcomed midfield star Colm Galvin back on to his Clare panel after the Clonlara man’s decision to return from a summer break in America. Galvin was a notable absentee during the Banner’s loss to Limerick in Munster and is due to return to Clare training this week having arrived back in Ireland on Tuesday morning from Boston. The manager yesterday issued a statement confirming the 22-year-old’s comeback. ‘Ahead of his departure the management team assured Colm that the door would remain open for his return to the squad should he decide to come home,’ said Fitzgerald in yesterday’s statement. ‘Colm expressed his desire to return and through regular communication with his father Kevin, we were only delighted
to invite him to rejoin the squad.’
COLM GALVIN is back from Boston to help Clare’s prospects in the All-Ireland hurling qualifiers — and manager Davy Fitzgerald has welcomed him with open arms. The 2013 All-Ireland-winning midfielder and All-Star has cut short his stay in America, where he had already won two trophies with the Tipperary club, and has been immediately added to the county hurling squad. ‘Ahead of his departure to the US, the management team assured Colm that the door would remain open for his return to the squad should he decide to come home over the course of the summer,’ said Fitzgerald in a statement yesterday confirming the return of the Clonlara star. ‘During the past couple of weeks Colm expressed his desire to return, and through regular communication with his father Kevin we were only too delighted to invite him to rejoin the squad. ‘Colm is an exceptionally talented hurler and had been a key figure in the Clare side up to his departure following the National League in April. He will resume training with the rest of the panel this week.’ Galvin was badly missed in Clare’s single-point defeat to Limerick in the first round of the Munster Championship and will be part of the squad for the upcoming qualifier against Offaly in Ennis on Saturday week. The 22-year-old returned from Boston yesterday morning and is readying himself for a quick return to action. Galvin’s sublime talent made him an integral part of the Under 21 teams that won a hat-trick of All-Irelands from 2012-2014 and he will be a major addition to the squad. It does raise the question though of a double standard in terms of the strict disciplinary code that the management have backed and enforced, one which created such negative press earlier in the season. Davy O’Halloran and Nicky O’Connell both quit the panel — O’Connell has since taken up an invitation to return — over the punishments meted out for supposedly socialising in the build-up to an Allianz League game. The former described the whole process as humiliating, with the fall-out prompting a statement in kind by the management and players. And yet Galvin has been welcomed back with open arms, with no demands placed on his social life while taking a two-month sabbatical in the States. What annoyed O’Halloran at the time is that he said the treatment by management depended on the player’s importance. ‘While all of this was happening another senior player told Nicky that he’d had a meeting with one of the selectors who told him he knew that he was drinking but he wasn’t going to say anything about it,’ said O’Halloran. ‘We just thought it was