Ger Loughnane has blasted the GAA for putting the safety of the Clare and Laois players at risk by playing yesterday's Allianz Hurling League game in the eye of Storm Dennis.

Laois manager Eddie Brennan revealed afterwards that his players needed hot showers at half-time to warm themselves up, while Loughnane claimed the conditions at Cusack Park were "as bad as I've ever experienced for a game".

"There is no justification for yesterday's game going ahead. I was at the match in Ennis and it was a bad joke," the former Clare and Galway manager wrote in the Irish Daily Star.

"Thunder and lightning, gale-force wind, freezing cold, hailstones. When there is an orange weather warning for an area, all games should be called off. In the west, the Limerick/Waterford and Galway/Tipperary games were postponed. So why on earth did Clare v Laois go ahead?

"The risk of injury is far greater when you're playing - or trying to play - in the eye of a storm. Is it safe to play in those conditions?

"There is plenty of talk these days about player welfare and having more of a duty of care towards them. It's hard not to think that it's just hollow bluster when you see what the hurlers of Clare and Laois were put through.

"All through the game, you could see players trying to warm their hands. It was ridiculous."

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