Derek Lyng had confirmed that Fionán Mackessy is part of his extended Kilkenny hurling panel.

The Poc Fada champion and former Kerry star is hoping to make his mark with the Cats after transferring from his home club St Brendan's, Ardfert to O'Loughlin Gaels last year.

"The first time I spoke to Fionán was late November, early December, just gone,” the Kilkenny manager explained to the KCLR Hurling Podcast.

“This is somebody who has played with Kerry for the last couple of years. He moved up to Kilkenny, got a job in Kilkenny and played with O'Loughlins this year. He's not hurling with Kerry this year and had already made that known.

"You're looking at it, and you have to be conscious of all those things, but you're looking at the club campaign and (thinking) is he somebody that could add something? Right now, he's one of 43, 44 players that we'll be looking at. He's made that commitment to do all that without knowing that there was any sort of commitment from Kilkenny or anybody else.

"We take it that he's playing for O'Loughlin Gaels. He's eligible to play for Kilkenny. He had a very strong club campaign. We'll see what that takes us.

"There's another 43 players in there as well who are fighting hard to be part of that squad, and the attitude shown from Fionán and everybody else has been excellent. We'll see where that goes."

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