Colin Fennelly hopes to be fit enough to play for Kilkenny in the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 semi-final against Clare on Sunday April 17.

The flying forward was forced off with a hamstring strain after scoring 2-1 in their quarter-final win over Offaly on Sunday, but is hopeful he has done little damage. Speaking on Tuesday at the launch in Croke Park of the Etihad Airways GAA World Games, Fennelly revealed he had gotten positive news from the physio.

“It’s good, yeah,” he said. “I was actually at the physio last night and he said it was a strain. Hopefully be back for the Clare game anyway depending on how I get on. When you pick up the ball and go again, just that pull. I went straight down and walked straight into the ice bath. Yeah, I'm hopeful to be back for the Clare game anyway. I was talking to the physio last night and he said as long as everything goes according to plan I should be back in full training by next Thursday/Friday.”

Kilkenny beat Offaly easily by 6-20 to 0-14, but it came at a cost because Fennelly was not their only injury casualty on the day. Richie Hogan was a late withdrawal with a tight back, Paul Murphy injured his AC joint, and Fennelly’s brother Michael and defender Robert Lennon also both suffered hamstring injuries. Fennelly is confident that Hogan will have recovered in time to face Clare, but is not so sure about the prognosis for Murphy, Lennon, or his brother Michael.

“Paul Murphy, yeah it was the AC joint. I was actually in with him yesterday morning. He's not 100% sure either. I know I hurt my AC joint and I missed the Dublin game. It was only a minor injury and I was missing for two weeks. He could be missing up to four weeks but, again, I just don't know.
“Michael, he was just feeling a bit tight. He's always cautious of it and he just went off. And Rob Lennon, he's been in trouble for the last, I'd say, five weeks with his hamstring. I'd say he'll have to get a good four or six weeks off this time. He's coming back every two or three weeks and it's not working out for him. I'm not sure about Michael. He's a bit low key about the whole thing so he is!”

The sight of the elder Fennelly brother limping off will have dismayed Kilkenny fans both because of his importance to the team and the fact that he has been so badly plagued by injuries in recent years. He is constantly nursing a chronic back injury that can flare up at any time, and the frequency and intensity with which he can train has been severely compromised. Colin Fennelly admitted the manner in which his brother has remained such an important figure for the team despite his injury woes has been inspirational.

“He's struggling at times,” said Fennelly. “The amazing thing about it is the slightest thing could adjust his back and set him back two weeks and it's just an awkward one for him. He keeps up his fitness on the side of the field, does all his own running and all that, stays out of most of the matches. Does all his own ball work in the alley as well. He's doing his own thing now in the last few weeks alright.

“It's so awkward. Your head has to be right to have yourself prepared for a match. I know if I wasn't in training it'd be very hard to get yourself up to match practice. We knew that when we came back against Waterford, we had only four weeks' training done. Thought things were going grand, then you play that match and, 'Oh Jesus, we're way off'. It's good for him the way he's able to keep focused and keep himself up to match practice because he was unbelievable again the other day when he was playing for the 20 minutes.”

Having overcame his back injury just in time to play a key role in Kilkenny’s All-Ireland Final victory last year, many Cats fans feared the elder Fennelly sibling might decide to go out on a high and retire. But Colin believes his brother is in no rush to hang up his hurley.

“No I don't think so, no,” he said. “He absolutely loves it. Even talking to Richie Power, the way he's gone so early, he didn't realise how much time you put into it. He's nothing to do now and he doesn't know what to do with himself. He's going to get a bike and start cycling. I've a bike at home and he said he's going to borrow that. He doesn't know what to do with himself. He kind of regrets now the way it prolonged and he kept on coming back and if he had to take a year out altogether, maybe get the knee right. But with Michael he keeps on playing.”

Kilkenny have lost key players like Richie Power, Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh, JJ Delaney, and Aidan Fogarty to retirement in the last couple of years but remain the best team in the country. And they hammered Offaly on Sunday despite starting without key forwards like TJ Reid and Richie Hogan. Earlier last week former Clare manager Ger Loughnane, in an exclusive interview with GAA.ie, suggested the Cats were too reliant on Reid and Hogan and shouldn’t be a good enough team to win a third All-Ireland in a row. Fennelly admits that Loughnane’s words have acted as a source of motivation for him and his team-mates.

“It is (a source of motivation), it is, that's true. When I heard it I was kind of like, 'that's absolutely crazy'. “You go through every team, like, Henry Shefflin, another sharp shooter, every team has different players and we didn't have Richie or TJ playing the other day and it makes no difference whatsoever. Kevin Kelly came in, took every free and slotted every free over the bar which, probably TJ didn't do that any of the other days. On a wet day, it's very hard, that was his first game in a while, put every ball over the bar, so things do not change...it just goes to show that what he said means absolutely nothing."

Fennelly was probably Kilkenny’s most dangerous forward until he was forced off and believes he has taken his game to a new level in the past couple of All-Ireland winning seasons. “Oh definitely, I felt a change myself,” he admitted. “As you grow up you become more mature and I realised two years ago that I had to step up my game. The more confidence you pick off the older lads, the likes of Henry and Tommy Walsh, you pick that up as you go along.

“You mature to the game and you realise what you have to do. Like, the training I'm doing now I wasn't doing anything near that five years ago, not anything like it at all. On your own, away from training and that, that extra bit of running if you're not fit enough. I had to do the world of more pucking. I'm at the ball alley so much more and it does bring up your game. Even on Sunday I noticed my touch was so much better so you would take things away from the game so you would. You'd know where you are.”