Eoin Kelly has retired from intercounty hurling at the age of 30.

Winner of four Munster SHCs and two All Stars, Kelly has indicated that he will continue to hurl for his club, Passage.

Controversially omitted from the Deise panel by manager Michael Ryan at the start of the 2012 season and kept on the bench for the All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Cork, Kelly commented yesterday:

"I've given 13 years to Waterford and I've been lucky enough to win four Munster titles on the field of play. That's a pretty good return.

"I recently broke my thumb badly in a club game and that's also a factor.

"I want to thank Michael and his management team. There are no hard feelings. They were doing what they felt was best early on this year and I respected that at the time.

"I felt I could contribute something and was only too happy to come back and play for Waterford when I was asked.

"I got a goal against Clare in the Munster semi-final, which proved to me that I could still perform at the highest level.

"[The County Board has] always been a great support to me - and to the entire team, come to that," he continues in The Examiner. "People don't realise how tight things are financially for the County Board, but they're doing everything within their power to keep hurling and football going in Waterford, and you have to respect that.

"At one stage earlier in the year we were asked to sign hurleys before a training session - the Board were going to raffle them off to raise money to buy a set of jerseys for us.

"I know things are tight everywhere and County Boards all over the country are feeling the pinch but, in fairness to the lads here, they're willing to put their shoulders to the wheel to keep things ticking over." Tweet

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