By John Harrington

Michael Fennelly admits it’s been hard to accept that he’s been ruled out of the All-Ireland Hurling Final by injury.

The Kilkenny midfielder ruptured his Achilles in Saturday’s All-Ireland Semi-Final replay victory over Waterford and will undergo surgery next Monday.

After that he’ll be in a cast for around six weeks and then a boot for six to eight weeks. The best case scenario is he’ll be able to return to light training by the end of February or March.

“Yeah, it's tough alright,” says Fennelly. “The time I did it, I knew it was bad. I suppose it was probably a pretty emotional time when it did happen on the evening, in the dressing room afterwards.

“You're in maybe a bit of shock as well. I suppose there is a small bit of hope that you can play and obviously the game is still going on and I was catching it on the TV in the medical room so I was keeping an eye on it there.

“Thankfully we won but there probably was a glimmer of hope that maybe it's ok but I went back into the dressing room from there and I think the physios had a quick look at the back of it.

“There's a little bit of a dent in it or a dip and that normally suggests that it's a ruptured. They didn't say anything but I knew by their faces.

“I'm teaching injuries myself in the lecturing as well and I'd a fair idea it was that. That was a tough moment but, look, the last few days haven't been too bad.

“A lot of people have been texting and sending messages, kind words and stuff and it has made it a bit easier the last few days but come the day itself it's not going to be a good day to be honest.

“But I've been here before and I've missed semi-finals and Leinster finals and stuff before. Normally missing training isn't the end of the world, I'm kind of used to I now, it's the game day itself in Croke Park, sitting down as a spectator.

“Not even togged out and stuff is going to be the hard part and not being able to contribute to any of those minutes whatsoever in the game so that'll be a problem and probably after that'll be fairly miserable enough as well. But, look, it is what it is."

Fennelly’s career in recent years has been blighted by a chronic back-injury that has limited the amount of training he can do and after last year’s All-Ireland Final admitted he might have to call time on his career if that problem didn’t abate or he suffered a serious injury.

A ruptured Achilles certainly qualifies as one, but he’s still hopeful he will pull on the black and amber of Kilkenny again.

“I did say if I picked up one or two serious injuries that I would have to call it a day and this is a serious injury,” admits Fennelly, “but I will see next February.

“I cannot really contemplate anything at the moment, it's so early in terms of the rehab phase but we will see at the time.

“Every year you are coming back into January training, or even December so your head switches to that straight away, at the moment I just need to get this right and I need to see how the recovery phase goes.

“I'm hoping the surgery does go well and I have no hiccups from getting the operation and we will see then in February or March.

“I have other things going on with my body, my back is still an issue and obviously that is innervating hamstring and so forth, so it is not just the issue with my Achilles.”

It would be a real shame if one of the best hurlers in the country was forced to retire through injury. Kilkenny team-mates like Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh, and JJ Delaney got to retire on their own terms, and ideally that’s what Fennelly would like to do too.

“I'd like to do that but again I am not a fool either,” he says. “I said it before that an injury will probably finish me.

“I've picked up such a large amount of them in the last few years that it probably will be an injury that will finish me.

“Hopefully not, hopefully I will go out on a high but there is no harm in thinking of the worst case scenario and that would be it.”

*** In a captivating short film, Sure GAA ambassador Michael Fennelly has opened up about the new role he will have to play in Kilkenny’s build-up for this year’s All-Ireland Final against Tipperary.**

Watch the video on Sure’s Facebook page here.