BREAKING: Tipperary's Seamus Callanan ruled out for six week with broken finger

All-Ireland winning Tipperary senior hurling captain, Seamus Callanan has been ruled out of the game for up to six weeks having picked up a broken finger in training on Friday night.

The Drom-Inch man had been nursed back to fitness by the Tipp medical team following a serious back complaint and this latest  setback is a big concern for Manager Colm Bonner who saw his side fall heavily to Waterford this afternoon in the Allianz NHL.

Bonner described Callanan's as a big blow and said that he would meet with a surgeon early next week to assess the exact extent of the injury and the course of action to be followed.

The All-Ireland winning captain from 2019 had been following a modified training programme to ease him back to fitness and had played in the game against Dublin, eventhough it was probably earlier than anticipated in terms of his return - he had also come on as a sub against Kilkenny in the narrow victory. But, the finger injury will rob him of valuable game-time ahead of the championship clash with Waterford in Walsh Park in six weeks time and could rule him out of contention for a place in the starting line-up

Colm Bonner expressed his satisfaction with some aspects of Tipperary's play but categorically stated that the showing in the last twenty minutes was simply not good enough and would need addressing. Waterford steamrolled Tipperary in this period to claim a 1-28 to 0-21 victory, scoring ten points to Tipperary's one in the last 20 minutes.

"We were holding on to their coat tails in the last ten or fifteen minutes, but I'd say that we are not helping ourselves in terms of the changes we are making to the team. We had eight changes for the Kilkenny game and for the Dublin one we had another seven. That's not helping to cement the team but we said that we would use to league to see what is out there because we need to know what is on the bench and what has been tested. There is no better test than that there today because the league is about seeing who can step," Colm Bonner said.