Conor Lehane says Donal Og Cusack still has a role to play with the Cork hurlers.

Veteran Rebel 'keeper and captain Cusack suffered a season-ending Achilles injury during Cork's league semi-final win over Tipperary but newcomer Lehane is sure the former All-Ireland winner will be very much part of the squad for the rest of the year - commencing at Thurles on Sunday when the Leesiders square up to All-Ireland champions Kilkenny in the league final:

"It is a small bit of a blow. We are very disappointed for him and he'd be disappointed himself but he's be the first fella to remind you that it's not about an individual," Lehane tells The Irish Times.

"It is all about the team and how the team performs and he'll be there with us and it's time for other people to realise it's time to step up and drive it on now.

"I'd say he definitely will have a role still with the team, he is such a big personality and such a big part of Cork hurling over the last number of years.

"The message at half time when he got injured was to drive on. It's obviously disappointing but you have to stay concentrating on the game, stay concentrating on performing and Donal Og would be the first guy to remind you of that and thankfully that's what we did.

"Our main goal is just to go out there and give it our best performance. We're going out for the win and so are Kilkenny.

"It's all about how we perform on the day. We're not really concentrating on Tipperary and Kilkenny, we're just focusing on ourselves." Tweet

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