Wexford are set to be without a trio of key players for the start of the 2020 Allianz Hurling League campaign.
All Star pair Diarmuid O’Keeffe and Lee Chin are likely to be sidelined while Matthew O’Hanlon, who jointly captained the team to the Leinster title this year alongside Chin, is also struggling.
O’Keeffe has gone travelling and won’t be back in the country until January while Chin sustained an injury while playing in the ‘super’ 11s in New York last month.
O’Hanlon hasn’t pucked a ball since sustaining a knee injury in July’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Tipperary.
Wexford start their League campaign away to Laois on January 25.
Team manager Davy Fitzgerald explained: “Dee O’Keeffe will be back in January so he’s going to miss a few games.
“I think Matt and Lee will be in trouble. Lee probably thinks himself he might make it back. He got hurt on the New York trip. I think he’ll be out for a while.
“He hasn’t trained with the team and I don’t expect him to train with the team probably until mid-January, that direction, so we have to be careful of him just to see. Hopefully a bit earlier but I don’t see it.
“Matt hasn’t trained with the team, hasn’t done anything since the All-Ireland semi-final. Matt has been out big time since the semi-final, got a bad injury.
“We have a few more niggles os you’re possibly going to be down the two All Star guys and Matt, I’ve a feeling, for two or three games which will kind of put us under the cosh a bit but, do you know what, it’s an opportunity for other guys to stand up and have a go.”
“There’s one or two lads gone (from the 2019 panel) but nothing major. We’ve eight new guys in so we’ll let them just tear away and see what happens.”
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