A championship debutant in 2009, Padraic Maher has started every one of the 54 championship games that Tipperary have played since.

This year the Thurles Sarsfields ace added a third All-Ireland SFC souvenir to his medal collection and is in line to pick up a sixth All-Star award on Friday night.

Nicky English and Eoin Kelly are the only two Premier County players to have achieved that feat in the past.

Can he explain his durability?

“I would say it's 80 per cent luck,” he answered to GAA.ie at the renewal of Littlewoods Ireland’s GAA and Camogie sponsorships yesterday.

“Injuries have a lot to do with it, you'd see lads picking up niggles here and there and it might curtail them for a game or two in the championship.

“I've been lucky enough that even if I have got a niggle I've been able to play through it. I think a lot of luck is in it, but, now, you do put in the effort. You do the recovery and do the stretching and everything to help the body as much as you can."A

“Obviously when you're getting older as well it does take longer to recover so you have to be smart about what you're doing as well.

“Look, we've been getting the best... I thought we were getting very good recovery and nutrition education for the last number of years, but that's gone to another level again now.

“So you're saying to yourself how high can this go? How far can you take it?

“I suppose a lot of it is luck, but hard work goes into it too on a personal level as well as what you're doing with your team-mates. And there are occasions too where managers could have whipped me off once or twice but obviously stuck with me for some reason.”

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