Cork ace Patrick Kelly is unlikely to win his race against time to be fit to line out against Limerick in the Munster SFC quarter-final on May 25.

Kelly underwent a hip operation last November and played his first competitive game last night for his club Ballincollig against Bantry Blues in the Kelleher Shield.

He explained to the Irish Examiner: "I've trained fully with Cork for the last two weeks but it has been a case of easing back into it, after drills you'd be feeling wrecked from it, it obviously takes time to get up to the level.

"I'm looking at the next couple of club games and then the county championship against Douglas, after that it's less than three weeks until the Limerick match, so it will be hard to get fully fit in time for that."

He continued: "After I had the operation I was told that it would take three or four months.

"That would have been the end of March or the start of April, and we had been erring on the side of caution but then I tweaked a calf while running.

"It thought that it would cost me one or two weeks but it ended up costing me five, though in a way it helped as it gave the hip more time to recover.

"It was a bit frustrating at time as I'd have liked to have been back for the end of the league, but was more important to ensure it was fully healed." Tweet

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