Kildare manager Cian O'Neill has confirmed that the Lilywhites will be without Kevin Feely, Paul Cribbin, and Daniel Flynn for the Leinster SFC semi-final against Westmeath at Croke Park on June 26.

Niall Kelly, though, has returned to training and will be available for the clash with the midlanders.  "He's been building up with the medical team and he's going to kick some ball, which is good," O'Neill said at a press briefing on Thursday.

"Hopefully, he'll play a small bit of football on Saturday. He won't be match-ready, but he'll be available for selection."

O'Neill, though, doesn't expect Cribbin to miss the rest of the campaign with a knee complaint.  "I hope not. We fully plan and intend to have a long and fruitful summer. So the longer we stay in, the better chance he has of coming back.

"We thought it was something we could manage. But obviously not. The more he plays, the less he heals."

Feely (shoulder), Cribbin (knee), and Flynn (hamstring) will all miss out for Kildare, who narrowly defeated Wexford last month.

"We've got three major casualties. The shoulder injury that Kevin Feeley sustained - we never thought it would heal and it hasn't healed in time.

"Paul Cribbin won't be available either. We've been doing our best to manage this knee injury Paul has been having all year.

"And Daniel Flynn. His hamstring injury, it recovered and then he had a bit of a setback. So he's out as well. So three pretty major blow for us in terms of our squad."