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Hurling

hurling

Tony Kelly close to Clare comeback

Clare hurling star, Tony Kelly.

Clare hurling star, Tony Kelly.

By John Harrington

Clare hurling star, Tony Kelly, hopes to make his return to action soon after a successful rehabilitation from the ankle reconstruction surgery he underwent 17 weeks ago.

He’s been limited to running in training until now but intends to join in the hurling sessions with Clare this week and the plan is to play a couple of League matches before the Munster Senior Hurling Championship.

“I've a good block of running done, so I'll be back in hurling this week,” said Kelly today the launch of a new Irish Protein brand called In the Zone, created in partnership with the GAA and GPA as The Official Players Choice.

"It's all going to plan so far. I just have to ramp up the hurling, shake off the rustiness, and hopefully I'll be back on the field pretty soon.

“I'll play it week by week and see how I get on this week and next week and then we'll see how it's progressing. But it's going well at the minute.

“If I can get in a couple of League games that's the plan, hopefully try and get a couple under my belt before Championship, yeah.”

Kelly first damaged his ankle in 2020 but managed to get through last year’s championship campaign with Clare before the injury came back to haunt him again.

“It happened in the winter championship of 2020,” he says. “I rehabbed it then that winter and it wasn't too bad. And then mainly after last year's inter-county championship it came back at me playing with the club and I kind of got to the stage where I couldn't train.

“Couldn't really train, playing bits of matches here and there, and then I just didn't want to do much more damage in terms of the injury so decided to get the surgery done and clean it up.

“The inside had to be completely repaired. The ligament was just gone on the inside of my ankle. On the outside then it was tore but they could repair it.”

In attendance at the In the Zone – The Official Protein Cookies & Biscuits of the GAA & GPA Launch event at Croke Park in Dublin is Tony Kelly of Clare. 

In attendance at the In the Zone – The Official Protein Cookies & Biscuits of the GAA & GPA Launch event at Croke Park in Dublin is Tony Kelly of Clare. 

Because his rehabilitation has gone so well, Kelly is confident his ankle will be even stronger now than it was in last year’s championship with Clare.

“I've had no real setback with it. So, in terms of severity, I'd say it's like any operation that you do, once you can get back on the field and you're not hampered or reduced in any way, shape, or form, then it should be okay. It feels fine, it feels strong, I've a good block of rehab done with it. I'm hoping that'll be the end of it and the ankle will see me out now and I might actually have a bit more flexibility with it.

“They've told me that once the rehab goes to plan you should be back to full strength and back to normal so from that standpoint it's going well.”