GAV WILL BE ALL WHITE IN TIME
KERRY star Gavin
White is refusing to put a date on his return as he focuses on his recovery from a knee problem that has already sidelined him for six months.
White hobbled off towards the end of last year’s All-Ireland semifinal against Dublin, rendering him very doubtful for the subsequent final win over Galway, although he managed to play a full part as he claimed his first Celtic Cross at senior level.
But the fallout from what was cartilage problem saw White going under the knife and then into an intensive rehabilitation process from which he has yet to fully emerge.
That means Kerry will be going to Ballybofey without him for Sunday’s League opener against Donegal and he may not be back until the Championship.
“I didn’t train a whole pile in the lead up to the final, I think I got back on the pitch maybe the Tuesday beforehand,” White explained when speaking at the launch of the Lidl Comortas Paidi O Se, which takes place on the Dingle Peninsula from February 24 to 26.
“I did the Thursday session then which was a fairly light session. My preparation for the final wasn’t the best in terms of training and kicking ball. I did the Thursday session, it felt alright.
“So I went into the weekend with an open mind, if I’m able to play I’ll play, but I don’t want to hinder the team either. Thankfully I did the warm up in Croke Park that Sunday, it felt fairly good and thankfully it held up through the game.
Adrenalin
“I’m not sure how it managed to do that, but I suppose the adrenalin and the excitement got me over the line. It started giving me a bit of bother alright towards the very, very end.
“I remember I punched a point, I think I collided with Seán Kelly at the time with maybe 72 minutes on the clock. That is when it started kicking up again, but thankfully the game was nearly wrapped up at that stage.”
But, still, there was “a substantial amount of damage to my cartilage”.
“It was an unusual injury, it didn’t just happen in one go in the Dublin game,” White continued. “It probably came over a period of time.
“If you look back at the injury in the Dublin game, nothing really happened as such. It just was the last tear in the cartilage, there was a substantial amount of cartilage ripped off really.
“So I had to get a microfracture operation done on that to get some sort of cartilage back in it. I’m well and truly into my rehab at the moment.”
Hectic
Kerry, like all counties, face a hectic League schedule with seven regulation games between this coming weekend and late March, by which time White may be in line to return but he hasn’t circled a date on the calendar.
“It’s difficult to say a timeline because I’ve been out for so long and I don’t know how the body is going to react. Just taking it week by week, build up my load.
“Please God, I’ll see some league action. If not, that’s the way it is. The most important thing is to get the knee right.”
Having been part of the generation of fivein-a-row All-Ireland winning minor teams between 2014 and 2018, White was one of many players who had to carry the burden of expectation that went with it and near misses against Dublin, Cork and Tyrone in successive years from 2019-21 ramped up the pressure.
It’s only now that he can acknowledge that.
White said: “It was an unusual one, I think. It was just an expression of so many emotions at that final whistle it was absolutely incredible.”