TADHG KENNELLY LOOKS set to be fit for the Sydney Swans’ first games of the AFL season next month.

The Listowel man underwent surgery on a dislocated kneecap which he injured while training at home with local GAA side in his off-season break.

“I had a mishap at home and I had surgery when I came back to Australia in December,” he told the AFL website, “so I’ve been doing a lot of rehab but I’m back running now and should get a game in before the season starts.”

It’s been frustrating being injured, but I’m definitely on track to play round one. At the moment I’m still seven weeks away from round one, but anything can happen and I’m not going to put myself under any pressure.

“I think what happens every year is you come off six months without playing any footy and all the focus is on round one. But often when you’re in the season, you want to have a game off here or there, but you don’t think about that during the summer.”

Kennelly said the season he spent helping Kerry to win an All-Ireland in 2009, meant he was playing catch-up.

“A year out for me was great physically, I was able to freshen up and I had a good season last year injury-wise (Kennelly played 20 games). The game has certainly sped up a lot, however, and you can see why the AFL is trying to slow it down a certain degree,” he said.

“There was a lot of nerves last year having had a year out of the game, and having the season under my belt should see my football come on in 2011.”