Tony Kelly
**By Paul Keane **
Former Hurler of the Year Tony Kelly is taking the positives from the injury setback which threatens to rule him out of competitive action with Clare until the summer.
The 2013 All-Ireland medallist has conceded that he's unlikely to see any Allianz League game time following ankle ligament damage which he suffered in January.
The talented forward said that unless the Division 1B outfit reach the final then he probably won't play, which leaves him focusing on regaining vital match sharpness in time for a Championship opener with Waterford on June 5.
Kelly is remaining optimistic though and said he was fortunate to suffer the injury early in the year while he pointed out that Pat Donnellan, who suffered a season ending cruciate knee ligament injury, is clearly in a worse position.
"It's a relief in ways that it happened at this time of the year," said Kelly, speaking at the launch of the GAA's official commemoration plans for the 1916 centenary.
"Pat Donnellan did his cruciate a few weeks before my injury so it could have been that situation as well and your whole year could have been gone.
If you're going to pick up an injury, then you want it at the start of the year rather than the middle of June or July when Championship games are coming thick and fast. I was kind of luck with the time of the year it happened."
Clare are coping well in Kelly's absence and have won their opening three games in the league. They play Kerry this weekend and if they can preserve their 100 per cent start to the campaign then they will fancy their chances against Limerick in the crucial Round 5 promotion tussle.
Kelly admitted that Clare have some ground to make up generally after failing to build on the All-Ireland breakthrough of 2013.
"It wasn't really pressure, I don't really know how to explain it," said Kelly. "In 2014, we actually started off great in the league but when it came to the Championship we were just kind of flat. Last year, I don't think we did ourselves as players.
"We are the ones going out on the field and from a big win like we had in 2013 you kind of have to go out and back it up and so far in the Championship we haven't done that, we haven't done ourselves justice really. This year is a massive year for us to do that."
Kelly is expected to be a key performer again in the Championship, though Donnellan is out for the season and Domhnall O'Donovan, the player who famously hit the levelling point in the drawn 2013 All-Ireland final, has left the panel due to work commitments in Dublin.
"We are forever indebted to Domhnall," said Kelly. "We wouldn't have won an All-Ireland in 2013 without him. I think it's down to work commitments. Nowadays if you are an inter-county player and working a considerable distance away from home it is very hard to go up and down three or four nights a week and have a life away from the game as well.
"But the door is always open for him to return. He's left on absolutely brilliant terms and I have no doubt we'll see Domhnall in a Clare jersey and in a Clare panel again in the future."
Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald is surrounded by a new look management team this year with Cork legend Donal Óg Cusack, selector Aonghus O'Brien and coach Paul Kinnerk all added for 2016. "I think Davy is after shaking it up a bit," said Kelly.
"I think stale is probably the wrong word for how it was but you need to come up with new things and adapt and change as you go along and I think he has done that with those appointments. The structures are there in place and it's up the players to use it to the best of our ability.
