Shane Dowling insists that Kyle Hayes case won't affect Limerick

Former Limerick inter-county hurler Shane Dowling does not believe that the controversy surrounding Kyle Hayes will have any negative impact on the county's chase for a fifth consecutive All-Ireland title.

On Wednesday, Hayes was given a two-year suspended prison sentence after being convicted last December of two counts of violent disorder.

The 25-year-old was also ordered to pay €10,000 in compensation to a man who suffered serious facial injuries during incidents inside and outside a Limerick nightclub in 2019.

Limerick manager John Kiely acted as a character witness for Hayes at his first sentencing hearing in January and moves to reintegrate the player into the Limerick set-up are already underway.

Hayes started at wing-back for Limerick against Dublin at Croke Park last month and could feature in the squad to face Kilkenny in Sunday’s National Hurling League semi-final.

Dowling, a former team-mate of Hayes with Limerick, was speaking on the RTÉ GAA podcast and is confident that the court case and the judge’s ruling will have little impact on their season.

"To be very honest with you, Kyle is a good friend of mine and I don’t feel it’s right to go into much detail and this is absolutely none of my business," he said.

"What I will say is that the decision was made yesterday, John has backed him up 100%, we all saw that a couple of weeks ago and I don’t see anything changing on that front now or in the future."

Dowling feels that Limerick are too experienced to let noise from outside their camp affect them or their performances and that the backroom staff with the county are well equipped to deal with whatever comes their way.

"I think if this was year one or even year two, I’d buy that and it’d be a huge concern," he said. "I