By Jackie Cahill

Former Clare star Brian Lohan has revealed the massive injury list that could derail University of Limerick’s chances of retaining their Fitzgibbon Cup crown.

UL take on Nicky English’s UCD in this afternoon’s semi-final at Cork IT and Lohan is planning without a host of current and rising young intercounty stars.

Kilkenny’s Brian Troy, full-back on last year’s victorious team, is out with a broken bone in his foot and Clarecastle’s Gearoid Ryan is a long-term absentee after breaking a bone in his ankle last year.

2013 Hurler of the Year Tony Kelly is unavailable with a hamstring problem and Lohan won’t have Sean Finn and Ian Galvin either, as both players suffered recent cruciate knee ligament injuries.

Finn, who won an All-Ireland U21 medal with Limerick last year, sustained his injury against Mary Immaculate College earlier this month.

And Galvin, younger brother of Clare senior star Colm, damaged his cruciate at the start of the year.

Lohan said: “They’re all crucial guys unfortunately injured but that’s the nature of the competition.

“You have to have a fair bit of luck to progress but we’ve been badly hit this year.

“Stephen Bennett had a great campaign with us last year, and Waterford, and he’s been out too, which is unlucky.

“I’m not a medic but with the amount of work that fellas are doing, their bodies are under more and more pressure and you’re seeing an increasing amount of hip operations.

“It’s not unusual to encounter guys who have had the hips done and even guys at 20 or 21 years of age, I could rattle off a number of them, which is new among GAA players.

“Cruciate operations were always there, maybe not as frequent as they are now.”

Today’s semi-final clash sees Lohan and former Tipp star English pit their wits against each other on the touchline – a clash that will revive memories of past Clare-Tipp meetings.

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Three Limerick colleges make Fitzgibbon Cup semis after @UL_GAA winhttps://t.co/pqUhGCKmqF pic.twitter.com/ZmsgBjxOEY

— BreakingNews.ie (@breakingnewsie) February 17, 2016

And with Davy Fitzgerald and Eamonn Cregan managing Limerick IT and Mary Immaculate College in the other semi-final, there’s a high-calibre of supremo on show.

The four managers have amassed seven All-Ireland senior medals between them as players while English, Fitzgerald and Cregan have all repeated the feat with the Bainisteoir bib.

Lohan remarked: “If you look at Nicky English, he has five Fitzgibbon medals as a player from his days at UCC (1981-85).

“He obviously has a great association with the competition from his own playing days and while I wouldn’t have been successful from my own days with UL, I got the opportunity to play.”

Lohan captained UL to glory in 1994 and also won the Player of the Tournament, acknowledging that a Fitzgibbon medal is one of the most prized in his collection.

He said: “Anyone that has come and won that medal really appreciates it.

“Everyone involved is trying to win this year and there are four teams left now after we started off with 15.”

Lohan, meanwhile, is expecting a much-improved showing from his native Clare this year – but hasn’t seen the Banner men yet.

The 1995 and 1997 All-Ireland winning full-back said: “I haven’t seen any of their games. With the involvement of the colleges, you don’t tend to go out and see them and the weather has been so bad over the last while.

“I think they could go well again this year - given how bad they’ve been over the last two years I’d say there’s a bit of desire among the group to try and perform. Hopefully it will be a good year for Clare.”