Offaly underage star Adam Screeney has revealed that an osteitis pubis injury has left it impossible to tell when he will pull on the Faithful County jersey this season.
Caused by overuse of the hip and the leg muscles, recovery time for the injury can differ from person to person.
With a Division 1B final coming up for Johnny Kelly's side at the start of April and Offaly’s All-Ireland Under-20 title defence starting against Galway a few days later, Faithful fans would have been hoping to see the prodigious 20-year-old in some big games in the very near future - but the player himself can offer no certainty.
"I have no timeline," said Screeney, speaking at the oneills.com launch of the All-Ireland Under-20 Championship.
"It's just so hard to know because it could be different for you than it is for me. I have steps on the ladder. When I get to this step, I can go on to the next."
The issue first reared its head in last October’s Offaly semi-final win for Kilcormac-Killoughey against Coolderry.
The club would end up winning the county title and making it all the way to the Leinster final, where they fell to eventual All-Ireland champions Na Fianna, meaning that the player didn’t really have the opportunity to rest up.
"I was taking anti-inflammatories before games just to get through, probably wasn't the solution," he admitted.
"It did (hinder his performances), it was a disaster really.
"Constant pain in your groin, it's a disaster. I had a nice little break there now."
Screeney said that the U20 opener against Galway had served as a potential target for a return, but he admitted that that could just as easily come and go.
"It is and it isn’t," was his reply when asked was it a realistic target.
"It could be and it mightn’t be. I could be back in two weeks. It's hard to know yet. I won't know until maybe a week out how I'm moving and whether it's sore after or stuff like that. I could make a call now but I could have a completely different call in two and a half weeks’ time."
Despite Screeney’s absence, these have been heady times for Kelly’s squad with nine points from a possible 10 ensuring a return to Division 1A ahead of their final group game against Waterford on Saturday.
They’ve been very impressive so far, demonstrating real grit to finish strongly against Dublin at Croke Park after dismantling an Antrim side in what had been deemed a 50-50 game beforehand.
Screeney may be frustrated at having to watch on, but he’s been delighted with what he has seen.
"I don't think anyone really expected that at the start of the year, that we’d be in a league final with a game to go and promoted but it's great.
"Every game we've turned up, we've played well and we're getting victories where sometimes in the past few years, when it turned into a dogfight, we mightn’t have got the win out but even against Westmeath we struggled and got a win."
Watch Cork v Galway in the Allianz Hurling League on Saturday from 7.20pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Watch Allianz League Sunday from 10.20pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to updates around the country on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
