'I then went to change direction too and I just heard a crack. It was horrific'

Six days before Kilkenny’s championship opener in mid-October, the 29-year-old’s season came - quite literally - tumbling down

SIDELINED: Kilkenny's Katie Power is missing the All-Ireland final through injury. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

“You are putting on a brave face the whole time, to be honest,” says Katie Power, a most frank admission from the sidelined Kilkenny forward.

Power is long acquainted with All-Ireland camogie final week. Since the summer of 2009, which began with her sitting the Leaving Cert and finished with her lining out at centre-forward in the All-Ireland senior final, there haven’t too many Septembers where she wasn’t mentally and physically preparing herself for involvement in camogie’s biggest day.