I’LL COME BACK FOR THE BEST FANBASE ON EARTH SAYS TOM PARSONS
ONE of Tom Parsons’ wedding vows carried a particular resonance. At different times since the gruesome knee injury sustained in the Connacht Championship against Galway this summer, he has felt like an extra in an Irish medical drama. The most recent of three major surgeries involved the attachment of a body part from a dead donor.
It helps to have a wife who is a qualified physiotherapist, though he smiles at the unexpected twist to their first year of married life together. ‘We got married last December. When you say those words, “for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health” — she got a rude awakening there,’ he says.
Somehow, the hugely popular Mayo midfielder has kept a sense of humour through it all. A sort of dapper, curly-haired version of the bionic man, he smiles at the thought that his reconstructed body reads like a missing episode of The Six Million Dollar Man.
‘I asked the surgeon to make sure that it is a high-quality cadaver ligament,’ he says of the Achilles from a deceased, foreign donor. ‘I have requested the highest jumpers in the NBA. It has come from the States so hopefully I will be jumping higher next summer.’
The extreme nature of the injury has had a major impact on his day-to-day life, including his career as a civil engineer.
‘I’m probably going to miss up to six months with his injury. The nature of it is you’re not sleeping at night. You do have that level of discomfort.
‘Sitting at a desk, I couldn’t really undertake my role with this injury. Just to echo the support I’ve had from my employers, Jacobs Engineering. They’ve allowed me to really rehab this and get back to full health.’
That same sort of support has come from all angles in Mayo. It’s been a week when the pieces have started to come together after James Horan’s second coming as senior football manager was officially confirmed on Thursday night. Parsons’ hopes of a return to action in 2019 is another. While he says that any talk of targeting a League return is ‘crazy’, he admits a summer Championship return is what is motivating him.
‘To play some part in next year’s Championship, whether it’s coming on as a sub or some role, definitely is on my horizon,’ he says.
It’s why he was happy to accept the recent invitation to launch the new Mayo jersey. ‘I accepted because it gives me a great visualisation of what it feels like, and what hopefully it will feel like to put on that new jersey in 2019.’
His connection with the fanbase was captured in a spontaneous show of support at the qualifier against Limerick in June. The crowd gave him a standing ovation as he hobbled in to take his seat with a heavy brace around his left knee and a crutch in his right hand. The gesture meant a lot to him.
‘When I got up on my feet four or five weeks after the injury and got down to Limerick and was walking to my seat, it was overwhelming that people — both Mayo and Limerick supporters —did clap me on. It made me feel at ease, not being on the pitch, being with the supporters. The few thereafter
‘A huge amount of resilience has been built up in Mayo’
were probably not needed but it’s that nature of the Mayo people. They have their hearts on their sleeves. They are full of passion. It’s something I would never want to take away from them.’
Mayo ended up part of the All-Ireland conversation, despite being knocked out by Kildare in a later round. Parsons though, isn’t about to add to the talk that Mayo would have been well-fancied to give Dublin a run for their money, even as the holders coasted to a four-in-a-row.
‘As players, it was very difficult to get over the disappointment of being out of the Championship. Albeit there are conversations that Mayo are best-placed to tackle Dublin. That might not necessarily be the case.
‘What I will say on that one is that we are very lucky to have a support base that have been nothing but supportive of Mayo football. We’ve seen that after the disappointment of losing All-Irelands but equally when we were knocked out of the competition at an earlier stage.
‘The Mayo public, the Mayo supporters, have always had our backs. That’s something we hugely respect and admire. It’s something that gives us huge energy every time we put on a Mayo jersey. We’ve got that backing of probably one of the best support bases of any sport in the world, the Mayo support.
‘I do feel that with the Mayo people and the Mayo players, not only myself but in the county as a whole, a huge amount of resilience has been built up there. Maybe that is built through the narrow defeats in recent years. That is a quality I definitely think that I have built into my character. Along with the other guys, we really give it a go.’
Can he return to play a part in getting the county to another showpiece event next year?
‘I suppose you have to be the driver of your own destiny, and if you fully believe you can do something, usually you can.’