Animated sprite for explosion around Player

Trying to figure out how to make an animated sprite that I have attached to the player be called on when I press the A button on the controller. My plan is to have pickups that you can grab when you kill enemies that will ad to your inventory, like grenades, and can use them when the enemies get to close. I think I have the just abouts for getting the item in inventory but cant figure out the A button and getting it to play the animation then remove after the animation is done. Surely I will have more questions about using and depleting the inventory stock but for now would just like to have the ability to hit A and kill the enemies within the sprite collision radius. Been messing around for a few hours and have had no luck yet. Thanks in advance.