Cillian Buckley has been restored to the Kilkenny team for Sunday's All-Ireland final, while Tipperary have named an unchanged team.
Buckley, one of Kilkenny’s star performers in recent years, has only featured sparingly over the course of the campaign after returning from a long-term knee injury but has been selected to start at midfield in what is the only change from the semi-final win over Limerick as Richie Leahy misses out.
Tipperary boss Liam Sheedy has kept faith with the same side that scored a rousing victory over Wexford in their semi-final though there is a health warning attached to the published line-ups with both camps having issued dummy teams over the course of the campaign.
Indeed, Buckley was named to start the Leinster final only to be withdrawn though his fitness and sharpness will have advanced considerably in the meantime.
Tipperary have 11 survivors from their 2-29 to 2-20 win in the counties’ last Championship meeting in the 2016 All-Ireland final, one more than Kilkenny.
Kilkenny are bidding to extend their record haul of All-Irelands to 37, while Tipperary are looking to win their 28th.
KILKENNY: E Murphy; P Murphy, H Lawlor, J Holden; C Fogarty, P Walsh, P Deegan; C Browne, C Buckley, J Donnelly, TJ Reid (capt), W Walsh; A Mullen, C Fennelly, R Hogan.
TIPPERARY: B Hogan; C Barrett, B Heffernan, R Maher; B Maher, Padraic Maher, S Kennedy; N McGrath, M Breen; D McCormack, J O’Dwyer, N O’Meara; J Forde, S Callanan (capt), J McGrath.
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