Waterford manager Peter Queally expects to have his Ballygunner contingent back for next Sunday’s Allianz Hurling League Division 1A clash with Offaly.

Dessie Hutchinson, Paddy Leavy, Ian Kenny and Patrick Fitzgerald are all set to return after helping the Gunners to All-Ireland club SHC glory last month. It’s a timely boost for the Deise who bounced back from their heavy Round 1 loss to Cork by beating Limerick last weekend.

"They're back with us next week, so they'll probably need a bit of training to get back up to scratch. But hopefully a few of them will be togging out with us next week and in the next round after that we should have a few playing then,” Queally confirmed to RTÉ.

Unsurprisingly, Queally was thrilled with his side’s response to the Cork defeat.

"We're delighted with the result. We've had a tough week now, a lot of soul searching after last week's defeat and the manner of the defeat... so it was important that we put in a fighting performance here today," he added.

"I suppose we're more worried about how we performed today than anything else but in fairness to the lads, they came good in the second half and we probably didn't have enough at half-time, but they got the result and we needed the result too.

"We kind of put a lot of emphasis on the performance, but at the end of the day it's all about winning these games too."

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