Cork hurler Pádraig Power ruled out for rest of the season following cruciate injury

The Cork hurling team have been hit with another injury blow as attacker Pádraig Power has been ruled out of action for the remainder of the 2025 season.

Power, who scored 1-4 in the win over Wexford in the opening round of the Allianz Hurling League, was forced off in the first half of last Saturday’s draw with Limerick. However, in addition to a shoulder dislocation which was set to sideline him for six weeks, the Blarney man has since been diagnosed with a torn cruciate ligament.

Power had been included in Cork’s 37-man squad for the year, which was released on Tuesday, before the news of the more serious injury arrived.

“Unfortunately, Pádraig Power is going to be out for the year,” Ryan said.

“He did his cruciate as well as his shoulder, it was an accidental collision into his knee. It only emerged after we had the panel finalised, we were hoping that it might just have been cartilage.

“He’ll be undergoing rehab and Joe Jordan, his fellow Blarney man, will be overseeing the recovery so he’ll be in the best of hands but it’s a pity for him. You’d be hoping that he’d be back for some of Blarney’s county championship campaign.”

Last year, a shoulder injury requiring surgery meant that Power did not feature for most of the inter-county season but, such was his progress on his return to fitness that he saw some championship game-time.

“He did so well last year, when he was out for much of the year but battled his way back in and came on in the All-Ireland semi-final,” Ryan said.

“He was obviously hoping to kick on from that and we were hoping he would too. He was very good against Wexford and it’s just a shame but the main thing is that he makes a full recovery.

“It’s a similar situation with Ben Cunningham, unfortunately he’s out for the best part of three months with a bad hamstring injury that he got playing for UCC last week. We felt it best to let him go back to the club and recuperate.”

Conor Lehane also had to be substituted against Limerick with a shoulder injury and Ryan expects him to be out for six weeks while a thumb problem for Séamus Harnedy will require a few weeks of recovery.

Like Cunningham, Seán Twomey was not chosen on the panel, having been out of action for a couple of months with a back problem.

While Cork won’t be calling up a player in place of Power, Ryan feels that his quick ascent last year shows that those excluded can still avail of opportunities.

“In fairness, there’s probably a lesson there for any of the lads left off the panel,” he said.

“The same thing happened to Pádraig Power last year, he got injured and he was off the squad for a while but then he ended up playing in the championship.

“Club league games will be starting in the next week or two and we’ll be monitoring guys, obviously there are a few not on the panel that are still involved in the Fitzgibbon.

“Unfortunately, the nature of senior inter-county hurling is that there are going to be injuries but the panel is fluid. We have some fellas who we haven’t been able to give game-time to yet, so we’ll have a look at them over the next few weeks in training and match.

“I can’t remember was it Conor Counihan or Dónal O’Grady said to me that your best ability is your availability. We’ve some lads there that are battle-hardened and have probably been lucky to avoid injuries over the years.”

Cork don’t play again in the league until the trip to Thurles to face Tipperary on Saturday, February 22, but rather than avail of that time for a training camp, managing the load will be the priority.

“We’ll train away,” Ryan said.

“Obviously, MTU have Fitzgibbon Cup this week, UCC are in the semi-final next week, that’s a good chunk of our players involved there and you don’t want to be overloading guys.

“These few weeks allow a bit of time to take a bit of a breather, then we come back for the Tipp match and then the Kilkenny and Clare games come straight after that.”