HE CONFIRMED LAST week that he broke both of his legs as he suffered a horror season-ending injury in Galway’s Super 8s opener, but key midfielder Paul Conroy has started his recovery on a bright note and is remaining admirably positive.
In a fascinating interview with RTÉ Sport’s Darren Frehill, the experienced St James’ club man explained exactly how the surgery went, focusing on the double-break in his left leg.
Conroy also sustained a hairline fracture in his right leg following an accidental collision with Kerry youngster Seán O’Shea in the first half of his side’s 1-13 to 1-10 win over the Kingdom in Croke Park.
“It was a clean break the whole way across both of the bones,” he tells Frehill, pointing out his left tibia and fibula.
“What they did was, they opened the knee up here and they go down with a steel nail — a rod as they call it — and they lock it in down the bottom with screws and lock it in up the top as well.
"The tibia being the main weight-bearing bone in the body so they had to put something there for support" - Galway's Paul Conroy on his recovery from a double leg break - Watch more on the @rtenews at 6 with @Darrenfrehill #rtegaa pic.twitter.com/MLHot1fwod
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) July 31, 2018
“What you have then is a steel rod going down there through the tibia and there’s nothing really done with the fibula. It’s just left then to recover.”
The secondary school teacher is due to start a new job in Claregalway College in September, but added:
“I don’t know will that happen in September now at the minute. It’ll be hard to go back with the leg not being recovered. I think I’m going to have to take a while off work and then hopefully get back as soon as the doctors and physios say that I’ll be able to.
“People think that teachers sit down but I don’t sit down anyway in my job! I’m looking forward to getting back but I won’t be able to do it in September.”
He reckons the recovery will take nine months, ‘everything going well’.
“I’ll get over it, I will work on it and I’ll be back next year,” he concluded, after speaking of his positive mentality, strong support network and continued involvement with the team.
“Seamus Coleman had the same injury and he got back ahead of time. It would be good to get in contact with Seamus to see how his recovery and rehab went.”
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