Injury not derailing Murray’s Cavan role
Niall Murray may be sidelined with injury but he remains a key part of Cavan's set-up, writes Paul Fitzpatrick.
It happened on a Thursday night, two days before Cavan were due to play Armagh. Niall Murray was delivering a long ball to Gearoid McKiernan on the edge of the square and felt a twinge in his leg. No big deal? Not quite.
“I just felt a little cramp, a little pop. I said ‘that’s not right’ and I got the physio to take a look at it,” Murray recalled this week.
“We didn’t actually think it was that bad, maybe a grade one or grade two strain, two or three weeks out. I had a scan Sunday night and then on Monday night I was in the gym in Abbotstown and I thought, 'this is great, I’m lifting, I’m a lot further on than I thought.'
“And then the doc [Philip Carolan] came in with Risteard Byrne, the physio, and they said stop what you’re doing. They told me the muscle was completely severed and the reason I couldn’t feel anything was that the muscle wasn’t there.”
Murray had turned in a good pre-season and was, in his own words, “feeling good, feeling sharp”. The injury – a complete tear of the rectus femerus, a muscle which runs from the bottom of the knee to the hip – is rare. The only other case he's aware of is Leinster winger Adam Byrne, who was on the sidelines for 16 weeks.
“But,” says Murray, “that wasn't his kicking leg.”
Cavan's medical team immediately got to work. This was serious, and tricky, so much so that no surgeon in Santry Sports Clinic was comfortable taking it on. So on Monday, February 3, Murray, accompanied by Head of Athletic Development André Quinn, flew to London for a consulatation with leading surgeon Farres Haddad, who had operated on Byrne.
“Andre Quinn and myself were 60/70pc sure from our research that we would be getting surgery. We flew over to London on the Monday afternoon and met him at 7pm that evening and it was so efficient, in and out within half an hour.
“He said we will have surgery tomorrow morning. Andre headed home on the Monday evening and I thought the next day I’d just hop on a plane after the surgery and be home. But my girlfriend is a radiographer in the Mater and she said ‘there’s no way you’ll be able to fly home that night’.
“So she worked the night shift on the Monday and came over on the Tuesday and I was very thankful to have her with me! I wasn’t that mobile to be honest.
“I got the surgery on the Tuesday morning and just wanted to sleep most of the day. Áine came over at one or two o'clock and we stayed that night and booked a flight home the next day.
“I was very lucky to have Áine there, even for getting taxis and stuff or getting on to the plane, getting through security, I didn’t realise how hard it was going to be.”
Since then, Murray has gone about his work with a diligence which would come as no surprise to supporters who have watched him in the county colours over the last decade.
“The surgery went well, the first three weeks, I couldn’t drive, couldn’t really work or get around the place but since then it’s been fine. I’m back driving, I’m back at work. The only thing I can’t do is get back on the football field which is annoying obviously but sure these things happen in sport.
“At the end of the day, it is a team sport and it gives someone else the opportunity to impress.
“You could potentially get by without getting it but you would break down and it probably would a 12-week recovery anyway. All of the research was saying get the surgery, it was a no-brainer. And to be fair to Cavan, they said fair enough, we want you back playing for Cavan and don’t want this to be affecting your day to day life once you stop as well.
“It’s not too bad now. I’m out of the brace two weeks so I’m just trying to get back walking normally. I was walking with a limp and they were giving out to me, they said my body will find ways to compensate and I need to teach myself to walk normally again.
“I’m back in the gym doing stuff, trying to build it up. I’m just trying to push myself hard enough to get back but not over-doing it to get a blip. To be fair to Andre and Risteard, I am doing four to five sessions a week and see Risteard once or twice a week, he’s based in Dublin so I don’t have to go home for every session.
“Patricia Feeley has helped me with food and stuff to make sure I don’t put on too much weight and to eat food that will promote healing and help with tendon growth and all that.
“And [sports psychologist] Paul Gaffney is helping me keep positive Because you would get down on yourself. When Cavan won three games in a row it was great but when they lost to Clare you’re just talking, ‘ah, it would be great to get out there and help the lads’.”
Contribution
Murray has accepted he will be out of action for a while but feels he still can make a major contribution to the group.
“You have to realise you probably won’t be able to help them much this year [on the pitch] so I have to find some other role for myself whether it’s talking to younger players, looking at video analysis… That’s where my head is at now, trying to find another role for myself to help the team.”
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It's hard to evaluate exactly where Cavan are at. A poor opening day loss was followed by three fine wins but defeat at home to Clare last time out has raised questions again. Murray, though, is a believer.
“Within the squad there was never any doom and gloom around the McKenna Cup. We kind of knew we had a lot of new lads in, a lot of learnings and we didn’t want to show our hand.
“Obviously the Armagh game was a massive disappointment and at half-time against Westmeath things weren’t looking great.
"I was going in for my operation on the Tuesday after that game and that second half was just brilliant, the resilience and the resolve, and everything about it, it gave me such a lift even going into surgery. It made me just want to get back, put my shoulder to the wheel, to be involved in something like that.
“Obviously the next two games were just brilliant too. Unfortunately against Clare in the first half, we left ourselves too much to do. The second half was an awful lot better, especially the first 10 minutes, but we just didn’t get a couple of scores when we needed them."
The Blues travel to Newbridge on Sunday knowing that a win would set them up for a promotion decider the following week. Realistically, though, consolidation is the focus for now.
“It is in our own hands but at the end of the day our first goal is to stay in Division 2 and secure our Tier 1 status so in my mind to do that, we probably need seven points. I know Cork went down with six last year.
“In the minds of the players, we’re just thinking ‘secure Division 2’. We can do that by winning or getting a draw on Sunday.
“Obviously if we win that, it’s an unbelievable opportunity. You could get relegated on six but you could probably go up on nine.
“Division 1 is where all the top teams are and that’s where we want to get but at the same time, we realise we aren’t safe yet. Kildare and Roscommon are two brilliant teams, they are great games to get and we are looking to win both.”
Murray describes himself as an “eternal optimist” and is hopeful of making it back this season. The arrival of a wave of young, hungruy players has energised him and he wants to be out on the grass with them.
“There are some brilliant footballers in there. A lot of them are young but they’re learning, you can see they are getting better every week.
“Against Armagh we were unlucky and it was a baptism of fire. The way they have reacted in the last four games has been excellent. You mentioned Oisin [Pierson], he’s putting in a lot of work off the field and his game has gone from strength to strength but he’s only one.
“There are loads of boys, there are 10 or 12 lads doing that. Boys can see that you need to do your gym sessions, keep your nutrition right, your video analysis, your sleep, they realise it’s not just turning up for training on a Tuesday and Friday and play a match on Sunday, it’s what you do day in, day out.
“I’m really, really happy with where the Cavan senior team are at the minute.”
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