ASK KEVIN DOWNES how long ago he tore his anterior cruciate ligament and he responds with the exact date.
“It was 30 July, 2016.”
A day like that tends to be difficult to forget.
Kevin Downes at the AIB GAA All Ireland Senior Football and Senior Hurling Club Championship Finals Media Day Sam Barnes / SPORTSFILE
Sam Barnes / SPORTSFILE / SPORTSFILE
In the past 15 years the torn ACL has become an increasingly common injury across all sports, not least in the GAA.
Just last month, five-time All-Ireland winner Bernard Brogan suffered a dreaded torn cruciate for the second time in his career. He did the damage after twisting his knee during a routine shooting drill near the end of a training session.
His older brother Alan revealed last week that the younger Brogan is aiming for an August return, which would be six months post-surgery. For Brogan to make it back to the field in such a short space of time would be a remarkable, if unlikely, achievement.
Tommy Dickson / INPHO
Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO
Downes made his comeback in April 2017, roughly nine months after the operation. That tends to be about the average, although it’s usually even longer before the player rediscovers any sort of form on the field.
“I remember my first couple of times involved in contact games in club training sessions,” explains Downes.
“You’re out for so long that it’s one thing doing drills and agility exercises with your physio. I remember being stuck in games and you’re so used to standing up watching things that you’re nearly still doing that when you’re out on the field. It’s just hard to get in there again.
“That comes around quickly. You get a few clatters and that knocks you back into life again. Look, it’s the guts of a 12 months injury so it’s bound to take a while to come back fully.
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“You see Bernard Brogan there at the moment and Aron Shanagher there in Clare and even though you don’t know of these fellas, you’d nearly wince for them. You’d be gutted for them.”
A regular on the Limerick team since his debut in 2011, Downes was sentenced a lengthy period of time rehabbing the injury in the gym on his own. The psychological toll of feeling detached from the rest of the team can be a difficult one for players to deal with.
“The cruciate is a fairly lonely road. It’s difficult, a lot of rehab, a lot of work on your own. You’d have your exercise to do and you might be doing it on the side of the field and the boys are out doing their hurling session.
Oisin Keniry / INPHO
Oisin Keniry / INPHO / INPHO
“You might have some days where X, Y and Z will happen but it’s good motivation. It’s a good grounding but it’s not a good thing to happen, obviously, but when it does happen it can have its positives. Unless you go through it, you don’t understand fully the long road that it is.”
Downes looked to athletes from other sports for inspiration during the long road back and explored some more unconventional methods to keep his fitness up.
“I remember that I saw a video of Sonny Bill Williams, the All Black,” he says. “He had a torn Achilles or something but he had a video up: he was on a rowing machine but he had the bad leg taped onto a skateboard.
“I sent it onto Darragh Droog, our strength and conditioning coach and asked, ‘What do you think?’ He said, ‘Yeah come in the next morning’. I was inside in Delta Altitude Centre doing that taped up to the skateboard.
“There was a spinning class going on in the rest of the room. I could see them all looking at me, ‘What is this? What is this clown at?’ I suppose at that stage, you’d be mad to do anything to just get a bit of sweat up to feel normal again to get back doing a bit of training.
“It was kind of a fluke that I came across that. I was doing a lot of reading about it. I met up with Seamie Hickey who came back within seven months. Seamie is kind of supreme athlete so he was a great guideline. There’s plenty of examples out there. Podge Collins is only over there in Cratloe. He’s another good example to look at.
“These boys came back. In some ways, it’s reassuring to see them. Obviously, they have to go through everything. To see the light at the end of the tunnel. Seamie came back, in his season back, and won an All-Star.
Seamus Hickey during his All-Star winning season of 2014 James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“It was good to see those example and to have something that (says) this isn’t totally doom and gloom. It’s kind of a lonely road and there are times when you’d be trying to do a certain exercise, stretch your quad or do whatever and it’s just not happening and you’re saying, ‘Will this ever come back around?’
“To come back from it was brilliant. It was very satisfying for myself. I suppose when you’re playing and you don’t have that, you can take certain things for granted, maybe. That really gives you an appreciation for it definitely. It’s a good thing to look back on as well.”
Since his return to full fitness during the 2017 campaign, Downes helped Na Piarisagh delivered Limerick and Munster honours, while the full-forward bagged a goal in their All-Ireland semi-final win over Slaughtneil.
“It was very satisfying,” he says of the win over the Ulster champions, where Na Parsaigh found themselves down to 13 men early in the second-half.
“In the first half we were very disappointed with the way we played. We didn’t get out of the blocks at all. At half-time we went in and got a dressing down from the management and we knew we had to up our game, big time.
“Even at the start of the second half, we were starting to hurl much better. We were getting into full flow, I suppose, really. We got a couple of points and then, obviously, the two boys got sent-off. That really snapped us into reality.
“It would a handy excuse, if you want to call it that, if you were beaten to say, ‘Sure, look, we were down to 13, what do you expect?’ I don’t think it (falling apart) was ever an option.
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
“It was one where you got into the dressing room after and there wasn’t manic celebrations. It was more relief: ‘Thank God we got over that one.’”
Downes admits the St Patrick’s Day decider, which pits the last two All-Ireland champions against one another, is a “romantic scenario” for neutrals.
“People were whispering about it when we played in the provincial finals. It was being spoken about if Na Piarsaigh and Cuala meet or whatever, obviously with the two previous champions meeting it’s set-up to be a great game.
“They’re a very talented team, they’re All-Ireland champions. They’re going to pose a huge challenge and having the two previous champions it’s set up to be a great game. We have to step aside from that and take it at face value of what it is, an All-Ireland final.
“We can’t be getting invovled in the hustle and bustle, we just have to go out with a job to do and have the gameface on. We can’t get involved in the whole scenario.
“It’s just a case of everyone being tuned in and obviously it’s an All-Ireland final so you’d hope everyone is going to be up for it and hunger won’t be an issue. You do need to get out of the blocks quick and you do need to get off to a quick start and not leave this game pass you by.”
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'Sonny Bill Williams was on a rowing machine with the bad leg taped to a skateboard'
ASK KEVIN DOWNES how long ago he tore his anterior cruciate ligament and he responds with the exact date.
“It was 30 July, 2016.”
A day like that tends to be difficult to forget.
In the past 15 years the torn ACL has become an increasingly common injury across all sports, not least in the GAA.
Just last month, five-time All-Ireland winner Bernard Brogan suffered a dreaded torn cruciate for the second time in his career. He did the damage after twisting his knee during a routine shooting drill near the end of a training session.
His older brother Alan revealed last week that the younger Brogan is aiming for an August return, which would be six months post-surgery. For Brogan to make it back to the field in such a short space of time would be a remarkable, if unlikely, achievement.
Downes made his comeback in April 2017, roughly nine months after the operation. That tends to be about the average, although it’s usually even longer before the player rediscovers any sort of form on the field.
“I remember my first couple of times involved in contact games in club training sessions,” explains Downes.
“You’re out for so long that it’s one thing doing drills and agility exercises with your physio. I remember being stuck in games and you’re so used to standing up watching things that you’re nearly still doing that when you’re out on the field. It’s just hard to get in there again.
“You see Bernard Brogan there at the moment and Aron Shanagher there in Clare and even though you don’t know of these fellas, you’d nearly wince for them. You’d be gutted for them.”
A regular on the Limerick team since his debut in 2011, Downes was sentenced a lengthy period of time rehabbing the injury in the gym on his own. The psychological toll of feeling detached from the rest of the team can be a difficult one for players to deal with.
“The cruciate is a fairly lonely road. It’s difficult, a lot of rehab, a lot of work on your own. You’d have your exercise to do and you might be doing it on the side of the field and the boys are out doing their hurling session.
“You might have some days where X, Y and Z will happen but it’s good motivation. It’s a good grounding but it’s not a good thing to happen, obviously, but when it does happen it can have its positives. Unless you go through it, you don’t understand fully the long road that it is.”
Downes looked to athletes from other sports for inspiration during the long road back and explored some more unconventional methods to keep his fitness up.
“I remember that I saw a video of Sonny Bill Williams, the All Black,” he says. “He had a torn Achilles or something but he had a video up: he was on a rowing machine but he had the bad leg taped onto a skateboard.
“I sent it onto Darragh Droog, our strength and conditioning coach and asked, ‘What do you think?’ He said, ‘Yeah come in the next morning’. I was inside in Delta Altitude Centre doing that taped up to the skateboard.
“It was kind of a fluke that I came across that. I was doing a lot of reading about it. I met up with Seamie Hickey who came back within seven months. Seamie is kind of supreme athlete so he was a great guideline. There’s plenty of examples out there. Podge Collins is only over there in Cratloe. He’s another good example to look at.
“These boys came back. In some ways, it’s reassuring to see them. Obviously, they have to go through everything. To see the light at the end of the tunnel. Seamie came back, in his season back, and won an All-Star.
“It was good to see those example and to have something that (says) this isn’t totally doom and gloom. It’s kind of a lonely road and there are times when you’d be trying to do a certain exercise, stretch your quad or do whatever and it’s just not happening and you’re saying, ‘Will this ever come back around?’
“To come back from it was brilliant. It was very satisfying for myself. I suppose when you’re playing and you don’t have that, you can take certain things for granted, maybe. That really gives you an appreciation for it definitely. It’s a good thing to look back on as well.”
Since his return to full fitness during the 2017 campaign, Downes helped Na Piarisagh delivered Limerick and Munster honours, while the full-forward bagged a goal in their All-Ireland semi-final win over Slaughtneil.
“It was very satisfying,” he says of the win over the Ulster champions, where Na Parsaigh found themselves down to 13 men early in the second-half.
“Even at the start of the second half, we were starting to hurl much better. We were getting into full flow, I suppose, really. We got a couple of points and then, obviously, the two boys got sent-off. That really snapped us into reality.
“It would a handy excuse, if you want to call it that, if you were beaten to say, ‘Sure, look, we were down to 13, what do you expect?’ I don’t think it (falling apart) was ever an option.
“It was one where you got into the dressing room after and there wasn’t manic celebrations. It was more relief: ‘Thank God we got over that one.’”
Downes admits the St Patrick’s Day decider, which pits the last two All-Ireland champions against one another, is a “romantic scenario” for neutrals.
“People were whispering about it when we played in the provincial finals. It was being spoken about if Na Piarsaigh and Cuala meet or whatever, obviously with the two previous champions meeting it’s set-up to be a great game.
“We can’t be getting invovled in the hustle and bustle, we just have to go out with a job to do and have the gameface on. We can’t get involved in the whole scenario.
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