RETIREMENT IS A strange one, especially from top-level sport.
It’s an adjustment, a change, a taste of newfound freedom, those at the centre of it having been defined by on-field exploits for so long. Many struggle, others thrive, while some are indifferent.
Dublin great Noelle Healy finds it all very different, that’s for sure. But unlike most others, ties haven’t exactly been cut.
The recently-retired five-time All-Ireland winner continues to make her impact felt in a different capacity, undertaking the role as team doctor.
Healy donned the Dochtúir bib rather than the famous Sky Blue jersey for the recent Division 1 league final victory over Cork, gracing the turf of Croke Park to attend to injured players, rather than play herself, as she has so excellently through the years.
An intensive care doctor and anaesthetist, Healy is an interesting addition to Mick Bohan’s backroom team, her presence alone a massive boost to team-mates she soldiered with for so long.
“Just to have her back here, to have her in the dressing room again, her character, her personality is just brilliant, so we’re happy to have her in any capacity we can have her in,” as Siobhán McGrath recently told The42.
How is it for Healy herself, watching from the sidelines?
“It’s a little bit different. It’s a different role. It’s been nice seeing them doing so well. It’s been great seeing a lot of the younger girls coming through and getting a good chance.
“Seeing Caoimhe O’Connor really coming of age, getting Player of the Match against Tipperary was brilliant, seeing the likes of Kate Sullivan coming in, Siobhan Killeen being back, and obviously seeing Hannah Tyrrell back is brilliant. Look, I’ve been enjoying it, they’re playing great football and it’s nice seeing them continuing to be successful.”
Always about the team, never about her, the 30-year-old was delighted to be asked to stay involved in the set-up.
Having bowed out as a legend of the game with a remarkable list of achievements to boot in April, Bohan wasn’t letting her slip through the cracks fully.
“It’s only something that happened in the last few weeks,” Healy explains. “When I had the conversation with Mick, I said, ‘If you never need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.’
“I suppose it was a role that came up, and I probably was a good fit, given my career. Any time someone comes in, there’s always a certain dynamic that may shift or change and I would have had that rapport with the girls in that they probably feel comfortable coming to me if there was something they needed.
“Mick asked if it was something I would be interested in if I was around for the matches so it is a nice way to stay involved. And I was happy to do it, it’s nice to have a bit if experience in sports medicine and things like that. It was a nice thing to be considered for and I’m enjoying it so far.”
On the comeback trail from a torn calf sustained running, Healy is still playing club football with her native St Brigid’s, having previously lined out for Cork kingpins Mourneabbey while working on Leeside.
Work, as always, is keeping her busy too, through her post-inter-county playing days chapter.
While her career commitments surely played some factor in her decision to call time on her Dublin career, she strongly rejects the suggestion that her work is “incompatible” with the ever-growing demands of inter-county Gaelic games.
After all, Healy has balanced it with six years in college, one year of in internship and now, a specialist training scheme to finish her clinical studies in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that it’s incompatible and it’s definitely not a message that I would want to go out there either, that it’s incompatible. It wasn’t that.
“I always said that I was happy to put the effort in as long as I was getting the same level of enjoyment out of it. I guess over the last year or two, that started to just wane a little bit.
“We work an awful lot of weekends, we end up working every second, if not third, weekend. They’re 24-hour shifts, they’re physically and emotionally quite demanding, and trying to swap that around training and things like that, while missing out on family events, friends events and things like that, I suppose it took its toll.
“Priorities change and the enjoyment that I was getting out of football started to slip a little bit. It was just a case of me taking a step back and looking at where my priorities lay, and that’s where the decision came from from my point of view.”
“Whether or not the pandemic and the stresses that were put on us in intensive care had a role to play, I don’t really know,” she added. “I suppose it’s something that I’ll only know really when you take a proper look back at it. I don’t think it played a huge role.
“It was an intensive job but I think I managed to balance it quite well for most of the time. The enjoyment starting to fall back a little bit, I was always kind of worried about it becoming something that I started to resent or not become as enjoyable for me. There’s always that risk of burnout as well so yeah, I just took a step back before that would really start to creep in.”
Speaking of stepping back, leaving the players’ WhatsApp group after her final message was a tough one.
She spoke to Bohan the week before the big announcement, and then informed captain Sinéad Aherne of her decision over a long walk and chat. She went on to tell a few of the more senior players, softening the blow before her final goodbye to the wider group as a player.
“That was probably the most emotional part of it, or probably the most real part of it. I think I threw my phone away as soon as I did it and went for a walk.
“It probably was the hardest bit because you have so many memories in it and you do kind of miss it. Sometimes you see the odd thing or you see it’s someone’s birthday and you go to send a message in and you’re like, ‘Oh no, I’m not part of that any more’. I suppose it’s bittersweet, but your time comes to move on.”
So, there’s no second thoughts?
“No, not at all,” Healy, the 2017 Footballer of the Year, smiles. “It’s something, like I said before, I had given an awful lot of thought to. I wouldn’t have just jumped into it.
“I suppose there’s the odd pang of missing it, especially when you’re watching them celebrate with the cup. But I’ve just been very fortunate in that they’re experiences that I’ve had before.
I think when you know the huge amount of work that’s gone into it — it’s all well and good to wish that you were part of it, but when you’re very acutely aware of the hours that go in behind it, not only on the football pitch but away from it as well, you know what needs to be done, and I kind of knew myself that I just wasn’t able to continue to give that this year personally.”
“Look, no, I continue to be very happy anyway. You can ask me again in September and see how I feel, I may have a different opinion at that stage,” she laughs.
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