Java - simplexml Element 'category' does not have a match in class

Question

I'm using simpleXML for a java project.

I have a an xml that looks something like this

<channel>
 ...
 <item>
   ...
   <category>Cat1</category>
 </item>
 <item>
   ...
   <category>Cat1</category>
   <category>Cat2</category>
 </item>
 ...
</channel>

This is my Item class:

public class Item {
...
    @ElementList(inline=true,required=false)
    private List<String> category;
...
}

I get an "Element 'category' does not have a match in class" failure.

Is there a way to use a ElementList for this even though some times there is only one category?