Kelly Mallon aiming for special seasonal debut

A Division Two league final isn't the usual place to make your season debut but for Armagh's Kelly Mallon this weekend could be the case as she looks set to return from a lengthy spell on the sidelines when they face Kerry on Sunday afternoon.

"I am available, yeah," the Orchard County captain confirmed. "I'll be togging out but whether I'm used or not is outside of my control."

The dual star broke her fibula back in October playing a camogie club championship game and a long-term issue with her Achilles has meant that she’s had to watch her team progress to the Division 2 final from the dugouts.

"It was very frustrating because I'd just got myself back with the fibula break and I was starting to make progress there and then just on that return the Achilles flared up.

"I had a couple of weeks of a really low time, I was definitely very frustrated with it but I'm feeling much more positive now because I'm on the way back again."

Although Mallon admitted that this latest injury marks the end of her camogie career, the Armagh Harps player isn’t solely dedicating her focus to football. She’s the most decorated female bowler in the history of road bowls and hopes to win her 10th All-Ireland medal this year.

It’s a niche sport that Mallon admits has a large following in Armagh and Cork particularly, but credits her father for introducing her to it.

"Daddy, his brother would have taken him along to it. Then daddy just got into it and loved it and all of our family would have participated.

"Our local area, our local road, they have weekly competitions. It's something he sort of pushed me into and I've stayed at it," she said speaking at a captains' media afternoon yesterday in Croke Park.

"I've won the Europeans, God, I can't remember