Football

Monaghan's Conor McManus managing hip problems

Monaghan star Conor McManus (right) has been dealing with hip problems for years.<br />Picture Margaret McLaughlin
Monaghan star Conor McManus (right) has been dealing with hip problems for years.
Picture Margaret McLaughlin
Monaghan star Conor McManus (right) has been dealing with hip problems for years.
Picture Margaret McLaughlin

BACK in early 2017, just over five years after surgery on his right hip, Conor McManus acknowledged that further down the line he is 'probably looking at a hip replacement'.

Yet three years on he is still going so strong for Monaghan, starting all five of their Allianz League games this term and keen to build on his 1-20 contribution so far when they host Kerry on Sunday in Inniskeen.

Changing jobs to work as an auctioneer in Monaghan Town has helped, eliminating a commute south to Dublin he'd been regularly undertaking.

"I'm still doing plenty of driving within Monaghan but it's not the same as when you're in the car for an hour, hour and a half, maybe two hours," said McManus. "You are in for 20 minutes and you're out. It's a lot easier."

Reducing their road time similarly helped to elongate the careers of TJ Reid and Andy Moran though there's more to it than just that with McManus.

Earlier this week, a lengthy piece on the42.ie website regarding GAA players and hip issues detailed former Tyrone star PJ Quinn's struggles and noted how some players, including McManus, have benefited from working with Westmeath based movement coach Shane Flynn. Put simply, Flynn is all about avoiding the 'quick fix' of surgery and placing more emphasis on improvements in the area of technique and general movement.

"I'm not too bad now," said three-time All-Star McManus. "I'm keeping on top of it reasonably well. It's there (the issue), it's no different, it feels grand and I'm getting through the games. I have probably played more league this year than I have in a number of years. Once you're getting through them you are happy enough to be getting those minutes under your belt. When the year goes on then you can maybe sharpen up on performances."

Monaghan, quite clearly, still need their leading marksman. It isn't news to anyone that they've been punching above their weight for years as a small county of around 60,000 now in its sixth straight year as a Division 1 team. The actual figures are still striking with 14 different Monaghan players remarkably starting all five of their games so far this year. Kerry, in comparison, have only started two players in all of their matches; Paul Murphy and David Clifford. In all, just 16 different Monaghan players have started games in this year's league compared to 27 for Kerry.

Part of that is inevitably down to new manager Seamus McEnaney wishing to hit the ground running and to build momentum by winning games though Monaghan remain on course to use the least number of players in Division 1 for the fourth time in five seasons.

David Kirk came on against Donegal last time out and became just the 23rd player to be used in the campaign. Take out Kirk, Colin Walshe and Andrew Woods, who have four substitute appearances between them, and that's a slimmed down but ultra committed core of just 20 players for five matches.

And yet they've beaten Tyrone, hammered Mayo and should have beaten Dublin. The only blip on their copybook so far is the loss to Donegal.

"There have been more positives in most of the games than negatives but that was flipped on its head the last day against Donegal, there were probably more negatives than positives that day," said McManus.

"But it's the league and it's tough, you're playing week in, week out and maybe you are liable to get a performance like that. Hopefully our only poor performance was that one against Donegal and we can rectify it the next day and get a better performance."

Monaghan deserve to fancy their chances this weekend. When they last played Kerry in Inniskeen they beat them, in 2018, and drew with the Kingdom in the Championship that summer.

It's a far cry from 2007 when McEnaney was in his first stint in charge and shed tears with reporters outside the Monaghan dressing-room following a one-point All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Kerry.

"We were in Division 2 in the league that year, we were away to London in one of the games, playing some of the lesser teams that are still in Division 4," said McManus. "That's the base you were at back then so playing Kerry in Croke Park in an All-Ireland quarter-final was a big deal for Monaghan, they hadn't been competing at that stage in quite a while. So it was different. Now you are used to it, playing year in, year out in the Championship and the league so it's just another game."

** Armagh-based McKeever Sports has announced that it has secured the official GAA licence which gives McKeever sports the authority to manufacture official club and county playing kit and leisurewear.