McCaffrey refusing to write off a return to action this season
JACK McCAFFREY won’t get into specifics regarding his return from injury but he hasn’t given up on featuring for Dublin in the championship in 2018.
The former Footballer of the Year damaged his cruciate knee ligament just three minutes into last year’s All-Ireland final and will have his three-month post-operation check-up this afternoon. But he insists the new season is not a write-off for him.
“At some stage I’d hope so,” he replied when asked if he’d feature in the championship this summer.
“You are looking at, All-Ireland final to All-Ireland final is 12 months, so most people I have spoken to are under that. But again I’m not going to pull a date or a game out of the air because I just think you are setting yourself up for a fall, which I don’t want to do.”
The recovery has gone to plan to date but he insists he’ll ensure the rehabilitation process goes right rather than trying to force the issue.
EXERCISES
“One of the lads was saying that Liam Óg McGovern came out and said he was all about these little goals and stuff. That’s exactly how I have been going about it, I always say it but the first four weeks was to fully straighten your legs, the next four weeks was to do a certain exercise in the gym.
“It has suited me thus far to have those small goals,” he said at the announcement that the Denis Mahony Motor Group is giving local GAA clubs the opportunity to win an training session with McCaffrey and Noelle Healy.
“I want the leg to be 100pc when I do go back and I’d rather take two years to get there than rush it. I have heard lots of stories of lads pushing for a date to come back and then setting themselves back to square one. That’s the bogey man for me and what I want to avoid.”
McCaffrey hopes to include a block of fitness and gym work into his recovery. “I’ve probably needed a window of fitness work for years. You just don’t really get it sometimes between all of the teams you are trying to play with. I could probably do with catching up with lads in the gym a bit as well – so there are definitely some positives.
“The one main negative thing about the whole thing is that it happened in the third minute of the match. If it had happened in the 67th then to be honest this would not be the worst thing in the world at all. And it isn’t.
“I’m confident that I’m getting great guidance from our physio and our strength and conditioning stuff as to what exercises to do. If I come back 100pc and having done a good block of work – you know you can do these blocks of fitness work and you can trade off them for four or five years nearly.
“You don’t really decondition or whatever, so I’m really excited to get back on the pitch doing that straight-line running and plod away at it for the guts of a month.”