Ciarán Kilkenny in Dublin under-21 hurling team to face Carlow

Ciarán Kilkenny has been included in the Dublin under-21 hurling team for this evening’s Leinster quarter-final against Carlow at Parnell Park.

It means a break from his preparations with Jim Gavin’s Dublin senior footballers for their Leinster semi-final against Kildare on June 30th, although Kilkenny has expressed his desire to play under-21 hurling this summer once the scheduling allows.

The game will also feature two Dublin senior hurlers set to line out in Saturday’s Leinster quarter-final replay against Wexford, confirmed for Parnell Park, with a 7pm start – with extra-time too should that be necessary.

Danny Sutcliffe and Eamon Dillon played important roles in last Saturday’s evening’s draw and senior manager Anthony Daly will be hoping they come through unscathed. However, the county board didn’t seek any postponement given the under-21 game was originally due to be played last Wednesday.

“No, because it was actually deferred already, from last week,” explained Andy Kettle, chairman of the Dublin county board. “So in fairness we couldn’t go looking for another deferment. Players will deal with it. We do have five under-21s on the senior panel as well, the two starters being Eamon Dillon and Danny Sutcliffe, but not large numbers.”

Also included with Kilkenny is fellow underage dual star Cormac Costello.

The losers of the Dublin-Wexford replay will then face Antrim in the preliminary round of the All-Ireland hurling qualifier series, the draw for which was made yesterday morning: seven counties were in the hat, all of whom failed to make their provincial semi-finals (Waterford, Antrim, Carlow, London, Westmeath, Offaly and Dublin/Wexford).

There will be three preliminary games on June 22nd with one county getting a bye to phase one on June 29th: the first team drawn as listed below will have home advantage.

Meanwhile Donegal’s Footballer of the Year Karl Lacey is almost certain to miss the Ulster semi-final against Down on June 23rd after undergoing keyhole surgery for a knee injury.