Michael Fennelly admits back injury threatening his future

Michael Fennelly’s immediate focus remains proving himself fit for Kilkenny’s meeting with Wexford this Sunday, but ongoing back trouble may force him to re-evaluate his career if the issue continues to compromise his hurling and his life outside it.

The injury, which originally cut deep into his 2014 season and has now flared up again in recent weeks, has still not been diagnosed and it has followed on from two separate ankle injuries which also compromised his campaigns in 2012 and 2013.

Such a run of issues has been “a nightmare”, he said yesterday at the launch of the #ThisIsMajor campaign for the Electric Ireland hurling and football championships, and thoughts of stepping away from the inter-county scene have already crossed his mind.

“It probably has been there in the last year or two in the back of my mind,” he said. “Life is more important and people forget about you pretty quickly when you move on, no matter how many All-Ireland medals you have, unfortunately.

“Your back is everything and if it is not right — if you can’t do daily functions and if you had kids in the future and you can’t play with them, that’s a different scenario. It’s something that I will revisit at some stage and see how my body is in relation to what is going on with it.”

It has been a frustrating couple of years, the 30-year-old says. Fennelly played in Kilkenny’s Leinster opener against Offaly last summer, but said yesterday that he shouldn’t have, due to the back problem. That aside, provincial appearances have been few and far between.

He did return in time for the All-Ireland semi-final against Limerick and trained and hurled away during the winter with no issues until it flared up again six weeks ago which, he said, had come as “a bit of a scare”.

“It’s the lower back,” he said in more detail. “When that triggers off — and it is hard to know what actually happens with it — daily functions like bending down to pick up stuff, I am in trouble with that. Even walking; I can’t jog.

“Bending down seems to catch me out. It has settled down now for the moment and I’m hoping it stays that way. As one of the lads said, maybe it is hard ground that triggers it because it happened last year during the summer too,” he says.

The absence of any diagnosis almost hurts more. An existing arthritic condition, which he said isn’t as unusual for men in their 20s as some might think, may be compounding the problem, but medication helps the pain and at least allows him train once it kicks in which is how he has been able to tog out the last week or so.

Yet, there is always the nagging fear that it will occur again. When, where or how is another thing.

If it does there is nothing else for it but rest — no running, swimming, gym or even driving — although for now he is working away with the rest of Brian Cody’s squad on the premise that he will be available for duty in Nowlan Park for Sunday’s Leinster semi-final.

“Maybe I am being a bit optimistic, but you have to be optimistic,” he says.

Fennelly’s uncertainty aside, Cody appears to be dealing with a deck in decent shape for the Leinster semi-final. Richie Power, who is having to contend with his own recurring injury issue — in his particular case it is a knee — is the most prominent doubt.

It is 11 years since Wexford famously defeated Kilkenny in the province thanks to Michael Jacob’s late goal. Fennelly doesn’t believe Cody will be referencing that this week and that the more recent meeting in Wexford in 2011 will serve as warning enough to the favourites.

“Wexford can go on emotion and adrenalin,” said Fennelly. They are definitely an adrenalin team at times. If the crowd gets behind them you are going to be in trouble.

“If you look back on 2011, and even last year in the league, they are definitely showing plenty of promise. We know each other at this stage, they are a local team and even since I was growing up there would always be quite tough games in Croke Park,” he said.