THE CRUCIATE LIGAMENT injury Jack McCaffrey sustained in last year’s All-Ireland senior final was the first of a serious nature in his inter-county career.
Just eight minutes into the clash between Dublin and Mayo, the Clontarf defender limped off the field of play, towards the Hogan Stand.
“It was strange,” he recalls, looking back five months on.
“The first half, like that went by in a whirlwind. I was inside and then I was out. My head was all over the place.
“The big regret around it is how early in the game it happened. If it had to happen, if it could happen in the 67th minute I’d be a lot happier. But, look, we won.”
As Jim Gavin’s charges regathered and prepared to launch their assault on the 2018 National Football League campaign, there was one big thing to be done. They all sat around to watch last September’s showpiece, and McCaffrey saw some of the first-half action for the first time.
He had been in with the physio, fairly distraught to be missing out. There was that sense of uncertainty. The questions. He didn’t want to get too caught up in it all but surely, the thought of ‘what’s next?’ crossed his mind once or twice.
McCaffrey’s sense of enjoyment of the game is something that radiates right off him as he speaks. It’s clear that he loves it. And to have that taken away from him in an instant, and his future plunged into uncertainty, was upsetting.
But watching the video back, surrounded by his team of All-Ireland winners, those questions had been more or less answered.
His rehabilitation to date has been positive. He’s reluctant to give an exact date for his return, but hopes to be back in the Sky Blue jersey at some stage during this year’s All-Ireland SFC. He’ll be back enjoying the game sooner rather than later.
Injury puts everything into perspective, he says. How lucky he is, how much he enjoys it.
“You realise, ‘You know what, I really want this, I really enjoy this and I’m going to move heaven and earth to get back to where I was’,” he smiles.
And that enjoyment is a major part of keeping the motivation.
“We’re having a good time. We’re riding the crest of a wave and everyone is enjoying things so much it’d be a shame to look back and say, ‘We didn’t work hard to keep that going’.
“I think the enjoyment that everyone in the group is getting out of it is the main driver in my eyes.
“It’s crazy,” he continues, when asked if some people have lost sight of the fact that most inter-county players make commitments to be involved at the highest level because it’s enjoyable and fun to do so.
“You’re a kid kicking around in the nursery in Clontarf, in your head you’re running around Croke Park. It’s literally a dream come true for most lads there.
“I’ll be the first to acknowledge that it’s a massive commitment but you wouldn’t do it if you weren’t enjoying it. The craic you have and the enjoyment of it all most definitely outweighs the negatives.
“Even the negatives, if you weren’t playing football, you’d like to think that you’d be keeping yourself in somewhat decent shape – you’d probably be going for a run or the gym three or four times a week anyway.
“Everyone on the team is that type of personality that likes exercise. After the operation, I was going out of my mind because I couldn’t do anything exercise-wise and I was in a foul humour taking the head off everyone in the house. Once you’re just able to do anything, it’s fantastic.
“It’s all part of a balanced lifestyle and I think it’s definitely overstated, the negatives of it.”
He adds: “I leave the house looking forward to going to training. You arrive, you have the craic with everyone. You go out and you train, you come back in and you’re home in bed. It’s not a chore.
“In the depths of January when you’re running up and down a mucky pitch, you can question your life choices but it’s something everyone does because it’s fun or most people do because it’s fun. I think people do lose sight of that a little bit.”
2015 Footballer of the Year McCaffrey is currently in his final days of studying medicine in University College Dublin (UCD).
It comes first, he acknowledges.
“The professional side always comes first. Well, in our camp anyway, for everybody,” he says.
“That’s one of Jim’s core attendants; you look after the things that are going to look after you after football. Your profession is your profession. That is my priority anyway.
“It goes quite harmoniously with football as well which is great. I can’t see that being an issue. You have Noelle (Healy) in next door who is three years ahead of me in the career progression and she’s flying it.
“It’s a very, very doable thing and I think it’s a very healthy thing to have a good professional life and something outside of that, which can serve as an outlet for frustration or a distraction. I’m hoping that they keep going hand-in-hand for as long as possible.”
That said, football is still a hobby. Having other commitments is a help, there’s plenty of other focuses in life. Football alone doesn’t define who he is as a person, he stresses.
And that’s the same with everyone involved with the Dublin camp.
“Genuinely, if lads were worried that you were putting too much into it (football) and everything else in your life was drifting, it would be said to you; ‘Is everything going well in work?’ or ‘How are your relationships? Are you seeing enough of them?’ – all this kind of stuff.
“For myself, medicine does take up a good bit of time, at the minute there’s a bit of down time but everyone has something outside it. I don’t think that there are many lads on the team who are just footballers, everyone has a couple of balls in the air.
“I think it’s really healthy. It allows you to focus on your football. When you’re in that football zone, you’re in the zone 100% in the knowledge that you can turn off in an hour and go do your other stuff as opposed to just 24/7 football, football, football.
“It’s just not sustainable, in my experience anyway.”
Denis Mahony Motor Group has renewed its support of Dublin footballer Jack McCaffrey and Dublin Ladies footballer Noelle Healy.
By simply registering to take a test drive in any Toyota Hybrid model at either of Denis Mahony Toyota branches, drivers can nominate a local GAA club of their choice to be in with a chance of winning an exclusive training masterclass, led by Jack and Noelle and held at their own club. For more information, see: http://www.denismahony.ie/web/test-drive-competition/
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