Seamus Kenny is still struggling to come to terms with a cruciate ligament injury that has brought the curtain down on his second year as Meath captain after just eight minutes of championship action and, potentially, on his 11 year inter-county career.

The harsh reality of his predicament will be magnified on Sunday when vice-captain Shane McAnarney steps into his shoes and leads the Royal County out on to the Tullamore field for their Leinster SFC quarter-final date with Carlow.

"I went and got the scan on the Monday and in my own mind I was pretty confident that there wasn't too much damage," says the 32 year old Kenny.

"I tore the cruciate in my right knee in 1997 in training with the club senior team. Back then I heard a snap after falling awkwardly when jumping for the ball on my own but there was no similar sensation this time around.

"Then on Tuesday I got a phone call from the doctor and when he mentioned cruciate I just couldn't believe it.

"First of all I was in total shock. I couldn't get over it. I had to ring him back 20 minutes later to find out exactly what the nature of it was because it had went so far over my head.

"I was completely devastated to be honest."

The exact diagnosis is a near complete tear of the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee as well as a torn medial ligament.

"I just remember chasing after the Wicklow number 14 into the bottom corner," recalls the Simonstown clubman who will undergo the knife in Santry Sports Clinic on June 29. "Just as he was going down on the ball I clipped it away from him.

"It was a dubious enough challenge and I thought it might have been a free against me but the ball broke free and I went to toe poke it away and the Wicklow man came in from the side when my leg was outstretched. All of his weight came down on the outside of my knee and it just buckled."

The only silver lining on a dark cloud personally for Kenny was that the Royals safely negotiated their preliminary round clash with the Garden County.

Against the backdrop of a disastrous FL Division 2 campaign and an ill-judged behind-the-scenes heave against manager Seamus McEneaney, the 0-16 to 0-11 win over Wicklow came as a mighty relief to all associated with the squad.

"Everyone knows how the league went; it is not something that any of us want to revisit. It was done and dusted and we approached the championship as the beginning of a new season for us.

"After the Louth game we took a three week break, went back to the clubs and that brought its own bit of freshness. You could see when we went back in together; we started everything from scratch and went back to basics with a lot of things.

"Seamus brought in John Evans and Trevor (Giles) as forwards coach. Their work has been very positive and it is definitely paying off a wee bit. The players are really enjoying what they have brought to the table."

What did the players make of the attempt by the top table to remove 'Banty' as manager?

"All the players want to do at the end of the day is go out and perform. We were very disappointed with how the league had gone for us after starting off very brightly.

"To a man we held our hands up. At the end of the day we are the ones who are out on the field and we would have been ultimately very disappointed with how we had performed in the latter rounds of the league.

"We were back with the clubs and came back as a group after everything had settled down. It was never really an issue. We wanted to get on with things as much as everybody else. We know we have a lot to put right after the way the league went for us."

Back to matters on the field and the Royals have been boosted by the return of Stephen Bray for Sunday's trip to Tullamore to face Carlow. The Navan O'Mahonys attacker has been named at centre-forward on the starting fifteen after recovering from a hamstring injury that ruled him out of the preliminary round success.

"Stephen was an All Star in 2007 and is probably one of the classiest forwards around on his day. He's a massive influence around the panel, very positive. It's great that he is available for Sunday."

A renewal of hostilities with Kildare is on the cards for the Royals should they overcome the Barrowsiders this weekend but Kenny insists that Meath are not looking that far ahead at this point in time.

"It's one game at a time. We have literally started from the bottom and are trying to work our way up. In past years Meath teams could go down and play Carlow and perhaps take them for granted but, at the moment, this team is not in a position to do that.

"We've prepared as well as we can for Carlow, as any other team.

"We've done a bit of video work on them in the last few weeks and they have some very accomplished footballers. Obviously, Brendan Murphy is one of the top midfielders in the country and they have other very good performers such as Shane Redmond, J.J. Smith, Sean Gannon and Daniel St. Ledger.

"Luke Dempsey knows all about Meath football and Anthony Rainbow is in there as a defensive coach. I'm sure they are going to be very well prepared for us."

The 2010 All Star nominee admits his new role as a spectator will probably not be to his liking.

"I'm not overly looking forward to it because I'm normally stuck in the middle of things. I'm sure it will be frustrating but, at the same time, I want to be a positive influence and if there's anything I can do to help the younger players, or anyone else, then I'll be only too willing to do that.

"I have been dealt the hand I have so now I just have to accept it and will try to do whatever I can for the team." Tweet

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