JOHN MCGRATH WILL never forget leaving the pitch during the London’s visit to Wicklow for a NFL Division 4 clash in February 2011.
He’d been complaining of a toothache for a fortnight prior to the game, but when he took to the field to play the Exiles, McGrath immediately knew there was something wrong.
“I couldn’t sprint 20 yards as hard and as fast as I normally could,” he explains.
McGrath felt so weak and out of sorts, he put up his hand and asked legendary manager Mick O’Dwyer to withdraw him.
Days later, the 24-year-old was diagnosed with the potentially fatal Burkitt’s lymphoma. Next came the gruelling course of chemotherapy.
“The toll it had on my body, it can be terrible,” McGrath continues. “It kills the good as well as the bad.”
Not even tough inter-county athletes are immune to the debilitating effects of the treatment. Four cycles of 16 days apiece saw McGrath confined to his room due to the risk of infection, with a three-pronged tube sticking out of his chest.
His immune system was badly weakened, destroying his mouth with ulcers so he couldn’t eat. His weight dropped from 12 to 10 and a half stone.
But McGrath feels a strong mind nurtured by playing inter-county football helped him endure those darkest of days.
“I’d say the mental side of things, the things you deal with through GAA, that sets you up nicely for an illness like that as well. You’re mentally tougher than you probably should be in those situations which is great.”
That August, McGrath received good news that the cancer was in remission, and by October he was back on the Wicklow panel. He struggled with injuries initially on his return, but that was to be expected.
“Fitness wise, it’s a bit tougher but I would say I got back to the (pre-illness) levels. Coming back from that I probably had a few more injuries than I would have liked.
“Maybe I wasn’t strong enough physically to deal with (the training initially). But I don’t think it’s impeded my performances really. It’s probably the mental side of it now that I’m trying to get the best performances out, but I wouldn’t think it’s had any impact or I’ve had any issues with it.”
In the summer of 2016, at 29, he received the “all-clear” five years on from that first diagnosis.
“That was my final check up out of remission. It was all 100%. From my point of view, I think when I came out of hospital I was done with it then.
“I’m very positive and kept very positive with everything that happened from my diagnosis to my recovery. I think within the first year it was done and dusted for me.
“If someone asked me even in the second year after it, ‘how are you feeling, how are things? I haven’t seen you in a while’. My reaction was, ‘grand, I had the ‘flu last week’ or whatever might have happened recently but it (the cancer) was out of my mind at that stage.
“Thankfully the doctors confirmed that as well in the summer with the last check up, everything is good.”
“Don’t worry about it ever again,” they told him.
It’s little wonder McGrath can hardly contain his excitement at the return of the new season in the form of the O’Byrne Cup.
Wicklow travel to face Meath in Navan on Sunday and the Baltinglass forward has high hopes for the coming season.
“I love training. I love putting on a jersey whether it’s my club or my county. The amount of times you moan and complain about it, but then if I couldn’t do that I’d be lost. I just love getting down there on the pitch, it’s my way of socialising, meeting friends.
“I’m probably too optimistic, thinking I can win this, that and the other. I still haven’t given up the hope of playing in Croke Park on Leinster final day.
“I know that’ll be laughed at throughout the country but if you’re not reaching for those levels then why bother? The thoughts of Division 4 (this) year, it is exciting.
“The thoughts of missing out on that, I’d hate to step away. Look, we always say, your football career is a very small part of your life and I have no doubt I’ll give as much as I can for as long as I can.
“I think it’s only when it’s taken away from you, as it was in 2011 for me when I was sick for a while, it’s then you realise how much you love it and how you’d hate to have to sit back and think ‘jeez, what would I do if I couldn’t play?’
“Every year I think I’ll keep going back until my legs say ‘no’.”
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