Daroch Honan has been ruled out of Clare's entire NHL campaign after undergoing hip surgery.

The big full forward, who was the scoring star of the Banner County's historic 2009 All-Ireland U21 success and who doesn't turn 22 until March, will be a huge loss to new manager Davy Fitzgerald in his bid to lead Clare out of Division 1B. Clare failed to gain promotion from the old Division 2 in the last two years and are desperate to make amends in 2012.

Fitzgerald is also facing the prospect of being without Mark Flaherty, who recently underwent cruciate knee ligament surgery and is likely to be sidelined for the rest of the year.

The Banner played two challenge matches last weekend, losing the first to Limerick IT (who Fitzgerald also manages) by 0-20 to 0-22, but winning the second against University of Limerick on a 0-22 to 0-17 scoreline. Tweet

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