It’s easy to lose focus without the fans’ energy, admits Mcilroy
ADARK, hollow feeling hung over Stephen Ferris as he sat in the all-too-familiar surrounds of the doctor’s waiting room. Just a few weeks earlier, he had been in the same place having been handed a lifeline for his career that was veering towards the edge of a cliff.
No sooner had Ferris been offered the glimmer of hope than it was cruelly snatched away again, as he began to face up to a reality that he had tried to ignore up to that point.
If you play professional sport as aggressively and as powerfully as Ferris then injuries are inevitable, but the constant battle against his body had taken its toll, both mentally and physically.
Six years on from having to hang up his boots, the former Ulster and Ireland back-row is walking proof of the lasting effects rugby can have.
For starters, his left knee is still in bits. His right ankle, which eventually finished his rugby playing days, has never been the same, while he also has nerve damage in his feet.
On top of that, Ferris will go under the knife in the coming weeks to fix a wrist injury. That will bring his surgery tally up to 12, which is a staggering amount for any 34-year-old.
For all that Ferris put his body through the wringer, he counts himself as one of the lucky ones. He has witnessed first-hand the kind of damage his fellow former players have suffered, and while he still doesn’t feel 100% right, he has learned to adapt to how his body now feels on a daily basis.
Sean O’brien can definitely relate to a lot of what Ferris went through, and that Ireland were so often denied the services of two of the most powerful athletes that the island has produced is not easily forgotten.
Although he played 106 times for Ulster, won 35 caps for Ireland, as well as having been selected for the 2009 Lions tour, Ferris’ career promised much more. Retiring at 28 was certainly not part of the plan.
“I definitely appreciate things a lot more now,” Ferris reflected. “When you are a professional rugby player, all of your focus is on being the best.
“Family, girlfriends, wives become secondary. You tend to appreciate them a lot more when you are retired. Saying that, there is absolutely no doubt I would have loved to have continued playing for another three, four, five years.
“Who knows if I would still be playing now if I hadn’t wrecked myself. I probably wouldn’t be playing at this age because I did go 100 miles an hour all of the time.
“If I hadn’t injured myself in that game in 2012, I could have wrecked myself in 2013, ’14 or ’15. However, I’m not saying lads are strategic in the way they play games, but I probably would have played fewer games nowadays.
“You see the likes of Johnny Sexton and Rory Best when he came towards the end of his career. Rory played four PRO14 games in the season before he retired. I tended to play 10 PRO14 games and then miss out on a couple of internationals because of injury.”
That sense of ‘what might have been’ is unavoidable when looking back on Ferris’ nine years as a professional.
One of his friends recently suffered a mountain biking accident for which he required corrective surgery. The hazefilled days that followed were a blur, which prompted him to ask Ferris just how on earth he managed to go through the same process so often.
“It’s crazy to think what you put your body through,” Ferris (above) admitted. “Before I wrecked my ankle, with all of my previous injuries, as soon as I got running again I knew I was going to get back fitter, faster, stronger, but with my ankle that was never the case.
“As soon as the cast came off, my ankle didn’t feel right. Then I went under the knife again, and it still didn’t feel right. I still had a massive pain and the swelling just wouldn’t go away. That was mental torture.
“You are putting all your hopes on surgeons, who have trained for years and years, to try and fix you. When they can’t fix you and they tell you, ‘Look Stevie, you have had three surgeries on this ankle, I don’t think another operation is going to do anything for it. We have explored all of the options’.
“Those words were pretty hard to take. Those 18 months were a disaster because never at any stage did I feel like I was going to get back playing at a proper level.
“From the day I injured my ankle to the day I retired, not once did I feel I was going to continue being a professional.
“It was hard. I’m a pretty resilient person. I’d back myself to overcome anything — mentally and physically.
“I don’t tend to rely on others as much as I probably should do. But it probably has made me a stronger person.”
Two years after suffering the initial ankle injury, Ferris reluctantly accepted his fate — but he is not bitter.
“People ask if I had kids, would I let them play rugby,” Ferris added. “But I still class myself as lucky. I climbed Kilimanjaro for the IRFU injured rugby players’ fund. Some have suffered more serious injuries. They are less fortunate.
“I look at the way the game is played now. There have been a good few rule changes since I hung up the boots. That would probably play into my favour.
“The impacts are coming down a bit, they are not as high. I feel the risk of injuries is probably slightly less now compared to when I played.
“But I have no resentment towards rugby. The reason I played was it was a contact sport. I loved getting one over on my opposite number, I loved the physicality. I liked being a dominant force. If I could turn back the clock, I wouldn’t do too much differently.”
Heineken brand ambassador Stephen Ferris was in Dublin to launch their new #Socialiseresponsibly campaign
As well as any mechanical issues, the Holywood star also reckons the ban on supporters, which has now been extended to September, has been a barrier to rediscovering his top form.
“If anything I’ve realised that it’s very hard for me to keep focused out here,” he said. “I feel like when there are fans and there’s that energy, it’s easy to get into that mindset that you need.
“But when you don’t have that, I felt the first three weeks my mind was wandering a little bit. I think some of the mistakes I was making were because of that.
“It could go both ways, but I think fans or no fans, if you’re in with a chance to win a tournament, you’re going to feel it regardless.”
As a result of his sketchy form, Mcilroy’s World No.1 ranking is under threat this week. All of the world’s top five golfers are in the field and Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Webb Simpson all know they could end the tournament on top of the list.
“If I play well, then the ranking takes care of itself,” said Mcilroy, refusing to get caught up in the bun fight. “All I’m thinking about this week is playing well and putting up some good numbers.”
Mcilroy is playing his opening two rounds alongside Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka and the trio get their first round under way this evening at 6.17pm UK time.
The other two Irishmen in the field are preparing for their second successive tournament at Muirfield Village as Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry both teed it up in last week’s Workday Charity Open.
Lowry, however, will again be without regular caddie Bo Martin this week. The Ardglass man has not been on the Open champion’s bag since the PGA Tour swung back into action last month.
Darren Reynolds, who has previously worked with Paul Mcginley and Paul Dunne, has been taking his place while Lowry’s brother-in-law fills in this week.
“Bo has had a bit of a strange few months,” explained the golfer. “He’s just had his second kid two weeks ago and his dad died a couple of weeks before that after a long illness. He’ll be back out for Memphis (WGC St Jude Invitational on July 30-August 2).”
Lowry would this week be defending his Open title, had the coronavirus pandemic not wreaked havoc with the golfing calendar.
Lowry begins his opening round at 6.06pm with Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose in the group ahead of Mcilroy, while Mcdowell has the final tee-time at 7.01pm alongside Dylan Frittelli.