St Thomas' pair Conor Cooney and Bernard Burke have been withdrawn from the Fitzgibbon Cup.

Under normal circumstances, the Galway duo would have been lining out against each other in today's semi-final as Mary Immaculate lock horns with Waterford IT but St Thomas' manager John Burke has withdrawn both men from the final weekend of the third-level competition as his club prepares to face Kilcormac-Killoughey in the All-Ireland club hurling final on March 17th.

But Kilkenny trio Cillian Buckley, Walter Walsh and John Tennyson could feature for UCD against UCC in this afternoon's other semi-final. All three are available for selection after playing no part in the competition to date.

Buckley, Walsh and Tennyson have all recovered from injury.