Fingers crossed for injured Cat Fennelly

Reigning hurler of the year Michael Fennelly is hoping he won’t join Henry Shefflin in the Kilkenny sick bay.

Ballyhale star Shefflin is in the process of recovering from a shoulder injury and is likely to miss all the National League but Fennelly thinks he can avoid a similar fate with his dodgy wrist.

Fennelly’s left hand is currently in plaster and he sat out the All-Star game in San Francisco this weekend but he thinks it is healing well and shouldn’t need to be poked at by a surgeon.

"There's always a chance it might need an operation, in which case it would take eight weeks to get right. I had the operation on my right hand before and it took two months to recover but I'm hopeful this one is healing well because I'm not feeling any pain,” he said.

The reason why Fennelly is wishing things will work out without the op is the return to training is imminent and the battle for places, as evidenced by the retirement of James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick, is as fierce as ever in Brian Cody’s team.

"You have to start gearing yourself quickly because the season comes around so fast,” said Fennely. “I'll get in some running and weights before Christmas and hopefully the hand will be okay to let me go straight back into the heavy action in January."

The weather out there might make a brass monkey think twice but the talk of summer and hurling has brought some warmth to us on a cold day.