Stefan Kelly believes St George’s have plenty of bowling options before their team selection for Cup Match.

Kelly is ruled out with a knee injury which he picked up at the end of last season while playing for Cardiff Cricket Club.

“It took them a while to diagnose what was exactly wrong, they thought I had torn the cartilage so I had to wait to have an MRI,” Kelly said.

“They couldn’t believe the MRI didn’t show any cartilage damage, just mainly tendon damage and I had to do a strengthening programme to try to fix it. It wasn’t getting any better and just before I came back I had to have an injection in the tendon to encourage it to heal and that’s where I am now.”

Kelly, a sports therapist with the Cardiff Met University football teams, has played a few games this season. However, playing two days of cricket would have been too much for him.

“Knowing what the injury was, I’d rather be up front with the coaching staff,” he said. “I could have tried to play but I wouldn’t know if the knee would hold up and I wanted to be frank about it.

“I wouldn’t want them to pick me because at any point the knee could have given way and that wouldn’t have helped the team. It’s the same injury I had when I missed Cup Match in 2008 or 2010 at Somerset, but in my right knee.

“Because it wasn’t my ‘plant’ leg it healed a lot quicker.

“Now it’s the left one, my ‘plant’ leg and there’s more a chance of a problem.”

Ryan Steede, the St George’s coach, admits Kelly’s experience will be missed in the bowling department. “He’s still young, only 28, so I told him, ‘You’ve got quite a few years still left in you’,” Steede said. “Hopefully he recovers and we see him back out on the pitch.”

Kelly assisted the bowlers during a training session at Wellington Oval on Tuesday where four seam bowlers — Kyle Hodsoll, Zeko Burgess, Cejay Outerbridge and Charles Trott — were battling for a spot.

“I’m a terrible watcher, I don’t like watching live cricket,” Kelly said. “I find it really hard to sit as a spectator and watch, especially with teams I played for.

“The last couple of days I’ve been giving advice to the seamers and spinners. I just completed a master’s degree in sports coaching and it is easy to identify players who need reassurance.

“One of the biggest things for players is to understand what they’re good at and what their limitations are.”

Kelly was the key man for St George’s in 2011 when they scored a thrilling two-wicket victory at Wellington Oval. He was at the crease when Lionel Cann hit the winning runs.

“Ever since I got off the plane last Friday the question I’ve been asked non-stop is whether I’m going to play, because people have heard the rumours that I might not be playing,” Kelly said. “I think it should be a good game, it’s just about [St George’s] getting the balance of the side right and picking players in form, strong characters who can stand up during tough moments in the game.

“I think it should be an entertaining game at least. It’s hard for both teams to win a game of two-day cricket.

“I play a lot of two-day cricket and very rarely get an outright win. One bowler has to have a standout performance or one team bats badly.”