Shane Dowling included in Limerick panel over four years after retirement

SHANE DOWLING HAS made a surprise comeback for the Limerick senior hurlers four and a half years after announcing his inter-county retirement due to injury.

The Na Piarsaigh man has been named as a goalkeeper in John Kiely’s pre-season panel ahead of the 2025 campaign.

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The 31-year-old former forward will compete with Jason Gillane and Conor Hanley Clarke for a place between the sticks while Nickie Quaid recovers from an ACL tear.

Dowling scored 21-292 in 59 league and championship games for The Treaty, overtaking Gary Kirby as Limerick’s leading scorer during his career.

The 2014 All-Star came off the bench to score a crucial goal in the 2018 All-Ireland decider against Galway, which ended Limerick’s 45-year drought.

In 2020, however, Dowling was forced to retire due to degenerative knee and cartilage issues which he had been battling for three years.

But Dowling rejoined the Na Piarsaigh senior panel in 2022 after a 32-month absence, moonlighting as a goalkeeper with the club’s intermediate side.

He has since made that conversion permanent, saving four penalties in Na Piarsaigh’s shootout victory over Doon in last year’s senior county championship semi-final. Na Piarsaigh went on to win the county title.