Déise star Connors hopeful of facing Clare

Waterford defender Noel Connors is optimistic about being fit for the Munster SHC semi-final against Clare next month.

The 2010 All Star missed the league with a bulged disc in his back but has returned to light training.

“I’m jogging and doing a bit of hurling with the club. I’m feeling a lot better now and it’s gradually getting there. It’s a slow process.”

The Passage club man continued: “In the last few weeks I have been running and I was training with the lads two weeks before we went off with the clubs.

Hopefully I’ll be back fully into it in the next two weeks. I’m just working my way back in and taking it stage by stage.”

Connors has targeted the third round of the club championships, on the last weekend in May, as a trial run to assess his fitness but June 17 remains his objective. He added: “I still have a load of time. There’s plenty of days and hours and weeks before the match so you have to be positive and look on the bright side of things to some extent. If you look on the bad things you are always going to get yourself down.”