Cork's Katie Quirke back to fitness and eyeing silverware

Following a frustrating spell on the sidelines, Bride Rovers footballer Katie Quirke is glad to be back in the saddle as Cork set their sights on collecting a third consecutive TG4 Munster Senior Championship title against Kerry in Mallow this afternoon.

After amassing an impressive haul of 1-16 across the opening three rounds of the Leesiders' Lidl National Football League Division 1 campaign, Quirke subsequently picked up a knee injury while lining out for her college UCC in February.

In addition to missing the remainder of the NFL and UCC’s march to the final of the HEC O’Connor Cup, it was initially feared Quirke wouldn’t be available again for Cork until the start of the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

Yet she had regained fitness in time to register five points in their opening round Munster championship win over Waterford at Fraher Field on 20 April. While she sat out a later loss at the hands of Kerry in Brosna, she posted 0-08 in Mallow a fortnight ago as Cork squeezed past Tipperary to set up today’s reunion with the Kingdom at the same venue.

"I was told originally it was going to be the 12 weeks and that would have been all going well without any set-backs. To be fair, I’ve been very lucky. The physios have been very good to me and the doctors as well. I haven’t had a set-back and touch wood that won’t happen either," Quirke said.

"It was tough and hopefully now I'm towards the end of that."

"It was pushed right up to the max and I had only trained one or two times before that Waterford game. It was just seeing how it would go and how I was feeling after that. It was just minding it.

"It was nice to be back and even get one or two games in because as we know, how you get on in Munster has such a big