DERRY full-back Brendan Rogers admits he doesn’t know exactly how long he will be sidelined for as he continues his recovery from a complicated foot injury.
Despite a torn planter fascia, Rogers played through the pain barrier as Slaughtneil battled on both the football and hurling fronts during the autumn before those campaigns came to an earlier-than-anticipated end.
The injury is still niggling at him and, although Rogers hopes to be back for the Derry footballers’ Division Four campaign, he admits much will depend on how quickly he recovers.
“It’s still not great,” said the 24-year-old.
“It could be two or three games into the League before I'm playing so I have a right bit to do yet.
“It's one of those injuries that there's not a wild pile you can do with it, it's just rest until it's fine and there's no guarantee that rest for six months is going to do it - it could take eight. It depends on who you are and how well you look after it.
“I could come out and go 'it's still not right here'. It's the same kind of injury that ended Ronan Clarke's career so that's why I have to be so careful.
“The physios in Derry are doing a really good job of looking after me. The club sent me to see a specialist at the time so I'm getting well looked after and getting as much information as possible.
“It worked in the sense that I was able to play championship, but now I have to look after the fine details to make sure it doesn't come back at all, because that's the last thing I need.”
The injury first flared up during Slaughtneil’s Derry hurling final clash with Kevin Lynch’s in the middle of August and, despite not playing a competitive game for almost two months, Rogers says it still wasn’t right by the time he returned.
“I shouldn't have been playing in any of the championship,” he continued.
“I shouldn't have been playing until December this year but because I played, I've pushed what should have been my rehab time back further.
“I wasn't fit. I was playing with a torn plantar fascia, on the outside of my foot - I couldn't put my heel to the ground.
“I damaged it in the county hurling final, I played my first hurling game seven-and-a-half weeks later and my first football game a few days after that because it was the midweek replay against Coleraine.
“Then we played the Ulster hurling games and I wasn't fit for them either, but that's the nature of it. You play one and you're expected to play the other. I half patched myself between matches and everyone knew that, but it's what you do come championship time.”
Despite the difficulties Rogers has had in the second half of 2018, he says he still intends to play both codes when Slaughtneil launch their bid to get back to the top in Derry – and Ulster – next year.
“When you're winning in one code it's great but see when you're winning in two, it is such a kick on in momentum.
“People are just literally growing from strength to strength as the competition goes on and there's nothing that fuels a team more than that winning. The stakes get higher with every level you go up and you just thrive on that and everyone thinks the same.”
In recent years Rogers has also attempted, where possible, to represent both the Derry footballers and hurlers at the business end of the county season, helping the Oak Leafers to a Nicky Rackard Cup in 2017.
But he is unsure whether that will be feasible next year.
“I don't know. It will probably be primarily football, that'll be first and foremost. Hurling will probably always be fixture-dependant.
“In the last few years it worked out that we had a gap in the football Championship that allowed me to play the hurling. They were willing to play some of the hurling Championship games without us and we won them which allowed us to play the games after that.
“It worked out really well but there's no guarantee that's going to happen this year. It's very tough on managing injuries and trying to play games on top of that. You're training six nights a week at county level for by any gym sessions so it's very tough.
“It'll have to be one of those decisions that's waited on until the summer time. Derry haven't got a hurling manager yet but especially with me coming back from injury, we'll have to see.”
