When Johnny Kelly named his team to play Cork this Sunday at O'Connor Park, there was one name that jumped off the team sheet. Oisin Kelly will make his first appearance for Offaly in twelve months.
Just about a year ago, the Belmont powerhouse suffered a devastating cruciate injury. This was doubly cruel because he'd suffered the same injury 18 months pervious.
Kelly was forced off after 63 minutes in Johnny Kelly’s side's Division 2A League victory over Carlow in Tullamore. A scan later confirmed the worst-case scenario.
It meant that one of Faithful County’s most talented forwards would miss out on any inter-county championship involvement for the second consecutive year.
Kelly suffered his first cruciate injury during club training with Belmont in September 2021. He had earlier played a starring role as Offaly blazed a trail of destruction through that summer’s Christy Ring Cup, after which he was crowned Hurler of the Year in the third-tier championship.
Both times, how Oisin sustained his injury was different, but there was initially hope that it wasn’t an ACL injury.
“The first time I sidestepped back in, it was a soft or wet day. The ground was slippy.
Whatever the reason, my leg collapsed underneath me. This time, it wasn’t as clear”
“The lad I was marking slightly pressured me, and my leg collapsed underneath me. Both times when the physio did the ACL test on the physio table, they told me it wasn’t my ACL. That’s why it was so hard to believe I did it both times when the physio got the result.”
Speaking last year after the injury, Kelly said he found the pre-rehab tougher the second time as he finds it hard to motivate himself to get the work done, but he sounded optimistic despite not getting much sympathy from his mother.
This time around, I found the pre-rehab before the operation more difficult because I put a lot into it the last time I came back. It’s a little bit tougher this time. I am not interested in doing the pre-rehab this time.”
“At the start, it was nearly hard to believe because when you come back after doing something, your biggest fear is doing it again. You are nearly half waiting to do something, but it’s hard to believe when it happens. But I must get on with it, I can do nothing about it. My mother wouldn’t be the most sympathetic. Only a week and a half later, I got the word that I had done my second ACL and she was going to me ‘Why wasn’t I out on the field practising frees?’ as if that was on my mind then. My family is supportive. They wouldn’t show it well because they think I would get too much sympathy if I did.”
Kelly also spoke of the strength and conditioning challenges of enduring a second cruciate injury.
“The biggest struggle for me was that I wanted to be playing. I wanted to be back playing at the top level; I was struggling with fitness and match practise, and because I needed that, I wasn’t prioritising my leg training rehab on my knee.”
“I wasn’t getting much chance because I wouldn’t do a heavy leg session the day of training or the day before. I’m not saying that’s why it happened, but it probably didn’t help either.
“When I was returning from my first knee, my good knee, as I would say, compensated for my weak knee. It was doing more work because it was sore, my operated knee was sore, and now that my new bad knee is gone, this knee has to do all the compensating, and it’s not strong enough to be doing the compensating, so it is getting sore.
There is light at the end of the tunnel for Kelly as he is set to make his first start of the Allianz League when the Faithful County play Cork on Sunday.
