Kelly was born in Dublin, where he played football for Belvedere before joining Tottenham Hotspur through their youth programme.

[5] Birmingham City were reported to have agreed a deal to sign Kelly in January 2006 before Tottenham's shortage of defenders put a stop to the move.

[6] He did join Birmingham, however, on 28 June for an initial fee of £750,000, potentially rising to £1.25 million depending on his success with the club.

[19] Kelly scored his first goal for Reading on 1 January 2014, a 95th-minute header from Royston Drenthe's free kick that gave his side a draw at home to Nottingham Forest.

Then, despite injuries to Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger, manager Giovanni Trapattoni left him on the bench for the 6-1 home defeat to Germany in 2014 World Cup qualifying.

Days later, Kelly had a training ground row with assistant manager Marco Tardelli, and was left so upset by the incident that he did not want to board the plane for the game against the Faroe Islands.