Limerick captain Declan Hannon will not participate in the All-Ireland final as he has been omitted from the squad by John Kiely. Unfortunately, the Adare star has been unable to recover from the knee injury he sustained during the Munster SHC final victory over Clare. Consequently, Kiely has opted to stick with the same 15 players who defeated Galway in the semi-final.
Cian Lynch will captain the side in the 30-year-old's absence.
In the absence of Hannon, Will O'Donoghue will take the center-back position, leading to Lynch's move to midfield, and David Reidy will play at center-forward.
On the Kilkenny side, Derek Lyng has named an unchanged lineup from the team that triumphed over Clare in their semi-final. Liam Blanchfield and Paddy Deegan have been selected to start on either side of Richie Reid. Notably, Blanchfield has apparently won his battle to be fit for the Croke Park decider. Additionally, Tom Phelan will feature as a wing-forward, marking his first-ever appearance in an All-Ireland final.
No changes to the Limerick XV for the All-Ireland final.
Declan Hannon misses out with Will O'D at #6 again.
Cian Lynch captains the side from midfield.
Aidan O'Connor comes into the bench for Richie English.
⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/UolxDvYMfu— Jack Neville (@JackNev30) July 21, 2023
Last year Kilkenny were beaten 2-26 to Limeric's 1-31 and will be aiming to stop Limerick's quest for four-in-a-row. They can also win their first title since 2015.
The highly anticipated game is scheduled to kick off at 15:30 on Sunday and will be broadcast live on RTÉ2.
Limerick: Nickie Quaid; Mike Casey, Dan Morrissey, Barry Nash; Diarmuid Byrnes, Will O'Donoghue, Kyle Hayes; Darragh O’Donovan, Cian Lynch; Gearoid Hegarty, David Reidy, Tom Morrissey; Aaaron Gillane, Seamus Flanagan, Peter Casey.
Subs: D McCarthy, C Boylan, R Connolly, A Costelloe, C Coughlan, A English, G Mulcahy, B Murphy, A O’Connor, C O’Neill, O O’Reilly.
Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy; Mikey Butler, Huw Lawlor, Tommy Walsh; David Blanchfield, Richie Reid, Paddy Deegan; Conor Fogarty, Adrian Mullen; Tom Phelan, Martin Keoghan, John Donnelly; Billy Ryan, TJ Reid, Eoin Cody (capt).
Subs: D Brennan, C Delaney, C Buckley, P Walsh, D Corcoran, A Murphy, C Kenny, T Clifford, W Walsh, R Hogan, B Drennan
