PLAYING with the remnants of a broken vertebrae in the back of his neck, it’s safe to say that there was little going to stand in Martin Burke’s way on Sunday.
The Cushendall full-back was at the heart of a strong defensive performance as the Ruairi Ógs fended off a Ballycran side whose inexperience on the big stage showed.
It was a day that looked like it might never come for him again.
On the first night of pre-season with Antrim at the start of the year, Burke was working in the gym, doing squat jumps with weight on the bar.
The bar slipped from his grasp and came down on the back of his neck.
“I dropped the weight bar down on the back of my neck and broke a vertebra. We were doing squat jumps and it came down and hit me.
“I was lucky, I didn’t go to the hospital for three or four days, I just thought it was sore.”
When he did go to Antrim Area Hospital, the X-rays showed that he’d “clipped off” the C6 Spinous Process. That is the bony part attached to each vertebra, to which muscles and ligaments of the back are joined.
Because his cervical spine – which houses the spinal cord – remained well protected, there was no surgery required, but the injury will never completely heal.
“The doctors said it was stable enough. It hasn’t healed, the Spinal Process is actually just chopped off at the back and it’s non-union, so it hasn’t actually healed.
“It won’t heal. Not because I came back, it won’t heal in general, but they say the cervical spine is still well covered and protected.”
The first doctor in Antrim Area told him that he’d be wise to call a halt to his hurling days, but at 29, Burke wasn’t content to let it go.
“The original doctor said don’t do it but I think that’s just their blanket response to all neck injuries. When I got to see the specialist, they said it wouldn’t be an issue.
“The rest of my family, my girlfriend, they were kind of saying ‘look, you’re 29 now, you’ve the rest of your life to think about’. But Alex Delargy cut the tips of his fingers off and he’s back. Arron Graffin came back from the knee, although unfortunately he’s done it again today. It shows the determination to be part of this.
“I’ve been told I’m mad. It wasn’t until Antrim put me through to see the top specialist that they said ‘this isn’t going to be a problem, you can do your thing’.
“I went to a very good physio in Ballymena, a big rugby man, Cameron Steele. He was used to dealing with neck injuries and he had me in head saddles and everything, so it was three or four months of hard work to try and get back.”
It was August by the time he made a return to hurling, his head turned by evenings of rehab in the gym while he watched his team-mates running about like spring lambs in the sunshine.
It’s more stiff than sore now, although he does admit to getting “a bit of sensation down the hand an odd time”. In the car on the way to Armagh on Sunday, he had team-mate Ryan McCambridge massaging the area to loosen it out.
Burke was adamant then that he wouldn’t miss out on whatever days like these he could salvage.
“I was in doing the gym work, doing a programme and there’s maybe eight or nine of us in, and the rest out training.
“We’re sitting watching them and it’s a killer, but you know there could be days like this down the line so you just keep at it.
“That’s why you come back. It’s not for the leagues and the Féis’. It’s satisfying to get over the line because it’s been three years since we got here.
“It’s brilliant. It’s frustrating when you’re not in it and you’re watching other teams win it. Antrim’s very competitive, there are four or five teams up there and any year you come out of it, you want to make the most of it and push ahead.”
