Keaney takes inspiration from Leamy

By Diarmuid O’Flynn

‘‘I used to complain that I had no shoes, til I met a man who had no feet’’ – this could well be the mantra of Conal Keaney.
A dual star, in his first year back full-time with the hurlers Conal had been the linchpin of a Dublin team that last year won its first national senior title in over 70 years, the Allianz Hurling League.
Later that year, however, just before Dublin were to meet Limerick in the All-Ireland championship, Conal was involved in a road accident, knocked off his motorbike on the way to work.
Conal ended up with a freak injury, tore his cruciate when he tried to jump clear of the bike and has spent the last eight months in rehab. Now, with a Leinster championship date of June 2 the target, he is almost ready to return.
It’s been a long and difficult slog but any complaints by Conal were put to bed the day he and two fellow-sufferers on the Dublin team (Stephen Hiney and Tomás Brady) met Munster and Ireland rugby star Denis Leamy. “I thought I’d been through the mill — he seems to have had operations everywhere. He’s just struggling to come back at the moment but his determination — never once did he say he’s thinking of retiring or he’s had enough of the injuries, it’s ‘How can I get over them?’ I suppose what he really stressed to us was how to take positives out of all the negatives that happen you.
“From my own case things could be an awful lot worse. As Denis was stressing, he’s looking forward to getting back and playing for Munster. I’m just really lucky to be — hopefully — getting back and playing again and putting on the Dublin jersey. It’s a great honour and I’m really looking forward to that.”
There’s no shoes, you see, then there’s no feet – where Conal has suffered one cruciate, Denis has done both shoulders, both knees and now, the hip. And still he battles on. “Yeah, yeah — he’s struggling with his hip at the moment but he’s talking positively, training away. He says it’s very hard but he’s hoping to play again in September or so. That’s the attitude you need to have; he’s determined to do everything right, he’s going to be back soon enough and that’s what we’re trying to get off him.”
The fact that Denis is a full-time athlete, able to focus solely on his recovery, isn’t necessarily a good thing, says Conal. “He probably just does it at different times of the day to us. He can get up at around nine or ten o’clock and do his rehab during the day and go back to bed for a while, while we probably get up a little bit earlier and do our rehab and go to work and do it again in the evening. But a big factor during the rehab is keeping your mind busy and not sitting on the couch thinking, ‘How did this happen?’ I think that can affect you as well. I just try to keep busy and do a bit of research in how to come back and what other people have done, get in contact with other people. Look at Henry (Shefflin, Kilkenny), he’s done it twice and seeing what he did to try and come back (at the moment Henry is himself rehabbing from shoulder surgery) — look at the NFL, so many people have done it there as well. That’s how you’re really kept busy, trying to see what’s the best way to go about coming back.”
The fact that he also has two team-mates to work with helps, two guys who suffered similar injuries and are thus going through similar rehab drills — makes it all a little less lonely.
“We can kind of query a lot of things ourselves and see how we’re fixed and what works well and what doesn’t work well — it would have been a tough road if you were to do it on your own.”
As for their rate of progress – “Myself and Stephen are probably around the same, Tomás maybe might be a week or so behind — there’s nothing really in it. We’re all doing the same drills and we’re eager to get back and try and get it out as much as we can.”
And that target date, June 2nd in Tullamore perhaps, the winners of Laois/Carlow? “I’d like to think I’ll play some part in the Championship but I don’t know how realistic it is. I still have to lift up the intensity in training and bit and see how the knee reacts. Just from talking to people that have done it in the past, you need to be very careful when you get back. It’s just a gradual process and really the rule of thumb is, when you think you’re ready, add on another month — I don’t know if I can afford to do that or not. I’ll see how it goes, see how the knee reacts in the next couple of weeks.”
It’s tough on him, tough on all those sportspeople going through the long rehab grind, but – as recognised by Conal – can always be worse, always.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/YNEIfD9XMzg/post.aspx

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