Eoghan O'Donnell isn't ruling out the prospect of a few more of Cuala's back-to-back All-Ireland winners returning to the Dublin hurling fold between now and the start of the Leinster SHC.

It was reported yesterday that Cian O'Callaghan, Sean Moran, Jake Malone and David Treacy are the only Cuala players to have linked up with Pat Gilroy's squad, which would suggest that Mark Schutte will be staying with the county footballers.

"I haven't spoken to Mark. He was with the footballers last year so I assume he extended his run with the footballers this year, I'm not sure if he has met Jim (Gavin)," O'Donnell said at an event to mark the commencement of the 2018 AIG Cups & Shields golf season in Carton House yesterday.

"In fairness to Pat, that's another thing he got right, he has given the Cuala lads a break to decide what they want to do. They haven't gotten a break at all so Pat has let them off.

"We'll have the old faithfuls in Cian O'Callaghan, Seán Moran, Oisín Gough and they will be back in but the other lads might need a small bit more time to make up their mind which is totally acceptable.

"We haven't actually met as a collective group. We've met at puck-arounds and gyms and stuff.

"We'd prefer the Cuala lads to come back in fresh rather than coming back into us and be flogged . . . okay, you get an extra week with them but what real advantage is it if they're tired and they're resenting the system?"

Tweet

Most Read Stories