TIPPERARY manager Fr Tom Fogarty and his co-selectors last night deferred picking the team to meet Galway in Sunday's National Hurling League final because of mounting injury problems.

They hope to try again after tomorrow evening's final training session.aggravated the ligament damage which kept him out of the Kilkenny match.

Pat Fox, who came on as a substitute against Laois, has hurt his leg while Colm Bonnar, whose suspected broken wrist has yet to be X-rayed, is a definite non-starter at this stage.

The casualty list reads: Declan Ryan (shoulder), Noel Sheehy (ankle), Pat Fox (leg), Aidan Ryan (back), Tomas Dunne (eye) and Eddie Tucker (leg). Declan Ryan did some light training last night.

In contrast, Mattie Murphy, the Galway manager, had no problems in picking his side last night. He will not be releasing it until this morning but said: "We picked from the same panel that was available for the semi- final against Wexford."

Irrespective of the outcome, Cork manager Jimmy Barry Murphy considers Galway and Tipperary to be the teams most likely to dominate the game for the rest of the decade.

"Both Tipp and Galway are the counties you would have to pick as the teams with the best talent coming through especially because of the depth of their under-21 talent."

"We played Galway in a friendly recently and I was very impressed With them. They beat us by six points. They seem to have much more work done at this stage and more hurling done than in other years. They look a lot fitter this time and very sharp.