Carey targets Cats’ Leinster clash with Wexford for return

DJ CAREY’S hamstring injury may be worse than initially believed, but the Kilkenny forward has no doubt that he will be available for the Leinster championship opener against Wexford on June 13.

A more detailed medical examination revealed recently that the multiple Allstar and All-Ireland winner was suffering from a damaged hamstring tendon rather than a straightforward tear, which has postponed his plans for a comeback in the Kilkenny championship.

"The injury is coming on," Carey said in Dublin yesterday. "It's a hamstring tendon tear. It's the same thing that tore off the bone last October so it would be serious if it was to go again, which is why it's pretty slow [coming back].

"I haven't been able to train since it went a small bit of swimming and a small few weights. It was three months before it recovered last year but then I had nothing to recover for at the time. Who knows in the middle of the season?

"It's not going to tighten me for the Leinster championship though. It'll tighten me for the local rounds of the championship. I was targeting the first round but now I won't get to train until the week before the second round."

Carey, who is receiving daily physio treatment, tore the tendon in the league game against Offaly on April 11. The first round of the Kilkenny championship begins this weekend with Carey's Young Ireland team taking on Glenmore.

The second round is not until the weekend of May 21-23, which gives Carey another three weeks to return to full fitness.