MAKING HAYES

Kyle's a genius with flaws who divides opinion like no other

- BY ROY CURTIS

ON or off the pitch, Kyle Hayes is the preferred accelerant for social media arsonists seeking to set the online world ablaze.

Drop his name - his genius as a sportsman trailed by his deeply unsavoury past - into conversation and, typically, it has the effect of a Molotov cocktail.

That Limerick's five-time All Star was back in court less than 24 hours after last month's man of the match masterclass against today's Munster final opponents Cork was a reminder of how the threads of his two lives have become so inextricably knotted.

How he is able to shut out all the white noise each time he plays, that he shows no sign of surrendering his place at the centre of the hurling world even while finding himself surrounded by such ceaseless tumult, is, of itself, quite remarkable.

At 6ft 5ins, he is the Platonic ideal of an athlete so often imagined by ancient Greek sculptors.