As I’m lying chilling by the pool on my sun lounger in Lanzarote, (I’ll brag early and get it over with) I’ve been thinking about different injuries and health issues I’ve incurred over the years, either directly through football or as a consequence of playing.
To anyone outside of Gaelic Games it must seem completely insane what players put their bodies through for a ‘hobby’, an amateur sport.
I know I’m probably middle of the road in the number of injuries in my career - there are some much sorer on themselves and very few who have got through unscathed in some way.
I’ve become increasingly interested in wellness and the various recovery methods available to encourage and boost wellness both mental and physical.
I’ve already spoken about sea-swimming and saunas, use of Calm app and the benefits of reading books over screen time. I’m still educating myself and have a lot to learn, but the more I learn, the more fascinated I become.
Curiosity about physical health, and underlying physical health in particular, brought me to booking a health assessment. It was completely painless (apart from the six-hour fast I had to do before going).
The results, although not surprising, have definitely got me thinking. I thought my metabolism and muscular health should be okay, body fat percentages low etc., which were as expected, but it was liver results and a few genetic things that were news to me.
Nothing serious that I need to worry about but some pointers that, with small adjustments, I can hopefully turn around.
My wife has been saying to me for years about the selection, or concoction as she calls it, of shakes and recovery drinks I’ve been taking, as well as the amount of painkillers I’ve had to take.
Turns out she maybe had a point (although don’t tell her I said that). When it came to my liver there were a few skewed results, I’m putting them down to pain relief and protein and definitely nothing to do with thoroughly enjoying the social scene whilst at UUJ and frequent visits to Clubland or the Arena back in the day.
It did get me thinking about how we, as sportspeople, naturally drive ourselves through, and sometimes far beyond, our pain thresholds through downright stubbornness and competitiveness.
We ignore consistent niggles and pain because we think we can play through it, fearing we will lose our position if we admit we aren’t fully fit and able.
We would rather the quick fix, the pain relief, the numbing injections, all the tape in the kitbag holding us together rather than holding our hands up and sitting out a training session or a match.
I can feel every physio in the country’s frustration and I partially understand where they are coming from, but I am one of those competitors who has, more often than not, ignored the advice of the experts and just worried about it later.
Short-term pain for any gains seems to be the mindset of many but now, as much as I hate to admit it, they maybe had a point.
I always was of the attitude that I never wanted to have any “what-if” moments in my playing career - what if I sit this one out, what if I miss that session, what if I admit I just don’t have 70 minutes in me this weekend.
I always just powered through, took the quick fix and hoped for the best. I’ve more than a few permanent ‘niggles’ now that I have to live with, but I’m one of the lucky ones. My tally of operations is nowhere near the likes of Philly Jordan or the bionic man himself, Brian Dooher.
I'm just glad for the next generation coming through that our awareness of our health, has improved so much over the last few years. Technology is ever advancing and although we play an ‘amateur’ sport, be it football, hurling, camogie or handball, we are so much more aware of both the benefits and the pitfalls of our training regimes.
Preseason historically was runs, run off the extra winter weight, get ‘match fit’. I’ve been part of several football training sessions where balls never made an appearance, it was all fitness. That’s all well and good until we remember that we aren’t sprinters nor long distance runners, we are footballers and need to have ball skills as much as we need to be able to run.
We have learned so much from other team sports and other countries' advancements in sports technology, taken those observations and adapted them to the GAA.
No-one could have predicted when Armagh and Tyrone were winning All-Irelands in 2002/03 that we would be playing club games now with StatSports vests and monitors tracking our performance and using the information to equally aid both our performance and our recovery.
We have adapted knowledge from rugby, soccer, Aussie rules and so many other sports and continue to develop and change with every passing season.
Remembering to balance the technology and not get bogged down in stats is more important than ever. Sometimes we need to test our limits but there are also times when recovery is key. I have learnt that some damage is irreversible, sometimes we do have to think about our bodies and the long-term effects over short-term gains.
That said, I’ll always push the limit, the ice bath will always be waiting for me to recover….
