I’M ON THE COMEJACK TRAIL
Mccaffrey: I have no idea how injury happened.. I’m just happy the worst is over
FINAL year Medicine student Jack Mccaffrey has admitted he’s still stumped by how his cruciate knee ligament injury actually occurred.
The Dublin defender pulled up in the opening minutes of September’s All-ireland final win over Mayo.
He was replaced by Paul Flynn (below) and was diagnosed the following day with a disastrous cruciate tear.
The three-times All-ireland winner underwent surgery exactly a month later and is almost two months post surgery now.
He says he’s excited about stepping up his recovery and plans to complete one of the GOAL Mile charity events over Christmas.
But the Medicine student at UCD admitted he’ll never understand why the injury actually occurred.
Mccaffrey said:
“I’ve watched it back a lot of times it’s incredibly innocuous. I was going in a straight line, I tried to turn ever so slightly. I don’t know, it’s a movement I’ve done thousands of times before and hopefully will do thousands of times again but, I don’t know, the knee just didn’t fancy it that day. Mccaffrey realised immediately the injury was serious but remained on the pitch for several minutes. He explained: “Maybe for four minutes. I knew I was coming off but Flynner had to get warmed up and a sub had to come on, so I tried to stand in the corner and make someone come and mark me, which they declined to do! “So then I thought I could get the ball but the lads recognised that passing me the ball would not have been beneficial to the team effort at that stage!
“It was really bad initially for about 30 seconds, it was very, very sore but by the time the medics came on and I got a drink of water it had gotten quite a bit better, which I have been told is classic enough.
“I think that’s the classic way cruciate injuries behave.”
Dublin will begin the defence of their Leinster and All-ireland titles in late May, against Offaly or Wicklow.
Mccaffrey said: “I’m pretty loathe to try and set a return date because
I’ll only end up missing it, so I’m taking it in little steps.
But it seems like it will be in or around the right date for the Championship].”
He’s also in the dark about exactly where a medical internship will take him.
He finishes medical exams on April 26 and will begin the process of finding an internship in February.
Mccaffrey said: “The biggest challenge will be if I end up in a hospital outside Dublin, which I most likely will.
“So that’ll be a challenge, but that’s the challenge intercounty footballers have all the time, jump into the car after work, travel back to wherever they are training. I don’t think it will be a massive issue.”