THERE ARE FEARS that Tipperary’s 2010 All-Ireland winning captain Eoin Kelly may have played his last competitive game after sustaining cruciate knee ligament damage last weekend.
Kelly, 34, was injured as Mullinahone lost out to Clonoulty-Rossmore in the Tipperary senior hurling championship quarter-final at Semple Stadium.
The six-time All-Star received the dreaded news on Tuesday after undergoing scans at Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny.
It’s the second time that the cruciate curse has visited Mullinahone this year, as Jack Shelly underwent surgery on Monday evening after he was injured in a club game against Ballingarry in July.
Shelly, a 2012 All-Ireland minor medallist, starred for the Tipperary U21s in their Munster championship victory over Limerick but was injured just two days later.
Shelly has time on his side but Kelly, who has also suffered with back problems in the past, may now decide to call time on his glittering career.
Confirming the news, Mullinahone PRO Jackie Bolger isn’t ruling out a playing return for Kelly, however.
He said: “Absolutely, we might not have seen the last of him.
“Whatever has to be done for Eoin will be done by the club.
“He’s given us 25 years of outstanding service and he’s given a lifetime to Tipperary since he was 15 years of age.
“There’s not a person in the country who wouldn’t wish him well.
“I’d never say never with Eoin — his passion for hurling is what gets him through.
“With Jack, it’s the second time around for him with a cruciate injury.
“He’ll get the winter behind him and we’d hope to get him back next summer some time or in the spring.
“Jack is a driven young lad but it’s incredible to have two fellas of their calibre finish the season with cruciates.”
Kelly, renowned as one of the greatest forwards in the history of the game, will be operated on at the Santry Sports Surgery Clinic in Dublin.
He announced his retirement from inter-county hurling in 2014, having racked up an incredible tally of 21-368 from 63 championship outings in the blue and gold.
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Heysel hurt Everton more than any other English club. Denied their greatest side a chance to compete in Europe.
@@TJPPK: you are right but i think as a whole England tried (and succeed ) after hysel and Hillsborough.
@@TJPPK: as an Everton fan I can tell ya that damage is still felt at the club today to an extent. We aren’t bitter about it in the slightest but sometimes ya can’t help but wonder what could have been if it wasn’t for a bunch of hooligans that night, not just for Everton but for all English sides after that
@@TJPPK: Not really. If the tragedy hasn’t happened, Liverpool would have won that game; both Liverpool and Everton would have been in the European Cup. Liverpool suffered too.
@Ian Heaton: they lost the game if memory serves me right, what makes you think without tragedy they would’ve won it?? Jive great side then..
@Philip Mckenna: They lost 1-0 to a penalty that wasn’t, which was to possibly appease the Juve fans. Liverpool couldn’t exactly go out and try to win the game after what had happened. We had a great side too, and we were defending European champions.
I remember watching that game in my teens, shocking shocking scenes, as a Liverpool supporter myself and everyone at the time expected some sort of violence but what unfolded was surreal, the bodies on the field both captains trying to calm the fans before the game resumed, the subsequent inquiry about the state of the stadium, how opposing sets of fans occupying places in the neutral zone, but most of all the dead and injured fans who in the main went out to watch what should have been a great game of ball, and not least the disappointment and disbelief that a section of the Liverpool support caused the mayhem, I recall telling my uncle at the time “this is not why I support Liverpool” coz fu@k it people all them poor souls just went to watch a game of ball and never made it home.
Really interesting read, well done
More likely should be called 2 classes of supporters. 1 the normal decent supporters, 2 the thugs. And most people will remember those thugs ringleaders were from upper class bankers,office workers and other financial institutions looking for kicks total animals
These articles care superb reads lads. Love them!
The night it happened, I was 13 years old and I decided to never have anything to do with that game ever again.
Haven’t watched another soccer match since.
Some mullets in those days
The way in which thatcher is vilified in articles like this is getting tedious. Granted, she wasn’t universally popular and her record in Ireland is appalling, but you would think sometimes that she was a tinpot dictator like Putin rather than a democratically elected leader who comfortably won three elections in a row. If she represented the minority, why did a majority back her? Are all British voters essentially fascist? Or did they remember the utter disasters of a union dominated labour administration? Could it be that a significant number of the sainted working class actually supported her? No, surely not.
@Cathal O’Donoghue: Try being a Scouser living under her regime. There was wishes to run the city down to nothing.
Where’s the comments gone lads? I thought I was having a reasonable conversation with another poster don’t let the kids take over the asylum.
@Dae Monicus: i think its gone to a stage of just cutting the whole thread?
@Stephen Coveney: So much for unhateful free speech Stephen, cheers for the heads up squire.
@Dae Monicus: all my comments were removed. I posted nothing offensive. Journal is a joke. China has more press freedom.
@kevin: I couldn’t agree more Kevin but at the time all clubs had somewhat of an hooligan element and I can’t condone that, however not the clubs as such but those whos fans, patrticuary those with a strong Irish connection ie Liverpool, Utd, Birmingham, Everton did face a lot of bias to be fair and again it doesn’t justify what happened at games it was just a reflection of the times.
60k a year 3 times the average wage???? 20k was the average wage in mid 80’s really??? Apart from that good read