ALAN Kelly has always been one of football's great survivors.

Back in 1988, when Kelly was cutting his teeth as a rookie goalkeeper at Preston North End, his career was almost cut short before it had a chance to start as a motorbike accident left him nursing a badly shattered leg.

For the next 18 months, the jovial Irishman fought tigerishly to save himself from football's scrapheap and when he finally won his fight, he went on to become a national hero, appearing at two separate World Cups for his beloved Republic of Ireland.

It's no surprise, therefore, to learn that Kelly handled the news of his recent enforced retirement with similar courage and dignity.

It was a crisp February morning earlier this year when the popular goalkeeper finally admitted defeat in his brave battle to recover from a finger injury.

Kelly had taken part in a routine training session at Blackburn Rovers' Brockhall training base the previous October when he jarred his finger in the ground and dislocated a knuckle, rupturing the ligaments around it in the process.

The 35-year-old then underwent a delicate operation in a bid to repair the damage but, despite the best efforts of the surgeons and the club's medical staff, he was fighting a losing battle.

It was a further four months before Kelly's worst fears were finally confirmed but now that he's had time to come to terms with the news, he remains remarkably philosophical about his new life without football.

"It's happened a bit prematurely but the nature of the injury meant there was no other course of action to take," said Kelly.

"But fair play to everyone at the club, they've really looked after me throughout all of this. The medical staff couldn't have done any more for me.

"It's a shame it happened in the way it did but it has happened and I've got to deal with it.

"At the end of the day, you've just got to learn to adapt around it. There's people out there far worse off than me so it's a minor injury compared to some of the other things going on."

Even now, Kelly still suffers from the effects of the injury as he can't straighten his finger properly, he can't make a fist, and his grip strength has been significantly reduced.

And, sadly, that will remain the case for the rest of his life as further surgery may do more harm than good.

"It was such a delicate operation that I don't think they'd want to go back into it again," said Kelly, who joined Rovers in a £600,000 deal from Sheffield United five years ago.

"Basically, I had to have it pinned and stabilised and it hasn't responded in the way we thought it would.

"I can't straighten the finger and I've still got limited grip so, obviously, in my job as a goalkeeper it was paramount that I had the movement I needed and we just couldn't get there.

"It's been an on-going process but unfortunately I'm going to have it for the rest of my life now."

If anything, though, the injury has made Kelly even more appreciative of the fantastic lifestyle football provides for its top performers.

When you're involved in the game on a daily basis, it's easy to take that life for granted.

But now Kelly has had time out, things have taken on a whole new perspective.

"People get worked up over the smallest things inside football but there's a bigger, greater and wider world out there and I'm in it now," said Kelly, who made a total of 40 league appearances for Rovers.

"I finished in February so I'm no longer a footballer and I'm no longer pampered.

"If you could take some of these young lads out of it for a year then I'm sure it would be one Hell of a shake-up for them.

"As a footballer, you do live in a certain comfort zone. You come down to training and everything's done for you.

"It's all geared to get the maximum out of a player but obviously it doesn't always work.

"So there's an adjustment to make when that comes to an end but if you keep level-headed then you can adapt.

"The danger is you go into the so-called footballer lifestyle and if you go too deeply into that then it's hard to come out of it when it does end.

"I think that's why so many players end up struggling when football is finally taken away from them but I've never really been like that."

Looking back on his career, Kelly fondly remembers his spells with Preston, Sheffield United and then Rovers.

And although the last few years have been somewhat frustrating due to his lack of first team opportunities, he understands why Graeme Souness overlooked him in favour of Brad Friedel. "That's football and I'm quite philosophical about things," said the Irishman.

"I've been to clubs and taken over from people in the past myself.

"That's the way it works, it's the nature of the game.

"If it had happened when I was 21 then it might have been a bit different but it was one of those things where you just had to get on with it, work hard, and if you got a chance then you got one."

Kelly has not ruled out a return to football at some point in the future, either in a coaching or managerial capacity.

In the meantime, however, he's simply looking forward to putting his feet up this summer.

"In some ways it's like being deregulated," added Kelly.

"On my last day, the gaffer said don't abuse yourself too much this summer. He told me 'don't eat too much, don't drink too much, make sure you look after yourself and do some training.'

"But then I thought to myself 'I don't have to do any of that any more.'"