UT OF MY CONTROL
CONOR MURRAY has revealed why he is only now talking about his injury absence - despite knowing the rumour mill was spiralling out of control.
All sorts of speculation circulated as to why Murray had been absent since Ireland’s tour-clinching win in Australia. And when Munster confirmed that he had a neck injury, the absence of a timeline for the No.9’s return also fuelled the flames.
For Murray himself, as the malestrom increased, it was reminscent of what Paul O’connell endured in making a slow recovery from an osteo pubis injury in his latter days with the province.
“It just snowballed,” declared the 28-year-old, who is targeting a mid to late November return and wasn’t surprised to miss out on Ireland’s November series squad yesterday. But why didn’t he address the rumours until now?
“I don’t think it deserves it, it was so far from the truth,” Murray replied. “It was probably just fellas talking in the pub, making up things. Then I remembered when Paul O’connell was injured, there were all sorts of things being said about him.
“Thankfully I’m close to a return and there isn’t much chance of any more rumours to be made up.
“You can’t control those rumours, what people want to say or make up. If I had the injury again, I’d do the exact same thing.
“It’s amazing. It took me by surprise how things can snowball and who says it back to you.
“Your relations are asking you and you’re like, ‘No, no, I’m injured, I’ll be fine, I’ve signed that (new contract) and I’ll be okay to go in a few weeks’.
“But I wouldn’t change it. It was never my intention to be top secret and not tell you what my injury is.
“It was, ‘I literally do not know what this is yet’. We wanted to figure it out and once we knew we released it, that it was my neck.”
During the radio silence from Murray came the suggestion that he was copying Jamie Heaslip’s approach. Before he retired, Heaslip (inset) closely guarded details regarding the injury that ended his playing career.
“Certain players have certain opinions: ‘Oh, it’s my data, I’m keeping it’,” “I don’t really have an issue with keeping medical data, unless it was something completely different.
“It was literally just the unknown over when I’d be back. But it’s a shame that you hear a lot of rumours. You think, ‘Wow, that couldn’t be further from the truth’. “I was in a good line of communication with my employer. In the meantime I signed my contract, so they were fully aware of how I was progressing.” Murray believes that the rumour mill will never die.
“It has been there and is going to be there for the rest of the time,” he said.
“When people don’t have anything to talk about or don’t know something, they’ll fill it with something. That’s been proven over and over again. “Some of the rumours are mad, but that’s just the way it is. It’s part of being in the public eye a little bit - people are going to talk about you”.
DANNY CIPRIANI’S controversial red card against Munster has earned him a three week ban. The Gloucester out-half was sent off in 29th minute of Munster’s Champions Cup victory over the Premiership side on
Sunday.