Coogan happy to be back after long road to recovery
IT’S been quite a year for young Kiltegan star Steven Coogan.
The journey began on the faithful week last October when the then Leaving Cert student got a call saying he would be starting in the Intermediate Hurling final, having played a key role in the semi-final victory over Glenealy a few weeks previous.
The 18-year-old was ecstatic at the news but unfortunately for him and Kiltegan he was denied the chance to play in the final and faced the possibility of losing much of the function of his arm after sustaining a very serious injury and severing nerves in a car accident just days before Kiltegan were due to play. Refusing to wallow in self-pity Coogan hasn’t looked back since.
“The injury was bad to be fair. I had my hand in the handle over the window so got my elbow caught between the car and the tree we hit in to. I damaged 13 and a half cm of a nerve and was told, when I was in hospital, that I was lucky not to lose the function of the arm altogether.
“The first thing I asked the doctors was would I ever be able to play hurling again and they just said that it was highly unlikely and that the arm would have a lot of movement restriction let alone be used in a contact sport like hurling.
“But to be honest I never lost hope or got too down about it and just focused on trying to get recovered as well as I could. I had to get a nerve from my leg put into my arm and just hoped I’d make a recovery.
“I made great progress though and after 6 weeks of being in and out of hospital I was told in January that if things remained going very, very well that I might have a chance of playing hurling again by the end of the calendar year. That was really brilliant and spurred me on even more.”
Coogan certainly hasn’t been left wanting in his efforts to return to the pitch.
“We were doing fitness training at the start of the year with Trevor Doyle for the football and I said I’d go up just to keep myself ticking overabit!
“For one of the drills we had to push sleds and I had to say to Trevor that I couldn’t do it because of my arm.
“I was wearing a cast at the time so he didn’t know the extent of the injury so when I lifted the cast and showed him he just replied “Jesus Christ” and was amazed that I was there at all.”
In terms of the Leaving Cert Steven says that in a backwards way the injury has actually been a benefit!
“I suppose the fact that I wasn’t able to play hurling meant that I probably sat down and studied more than I might have otherwise so it worked out okay that way! I’m ambidextrous and hurl with my left and usually write with my right so I was grand in terms of writing so was lucky.”
In the Spring Coogan and his family were informed that there was an experimental operation which could speed up his recovery even more and allow him have better use of the arm.
Steven went in for the operation in April in Blanchardstown Hospital, where having come out of it with flying colours was told to wait till after the leaving to test out the arm on a hurling pitch again.
“I was told to stay off the pitch till after the leaving but then a school match was organised between the Wicklow and Carlow lads, which is a big thing, on Sports Day at the start of May so I couldn’t miss that.
“I probably kept that one on the down low and had to sneak the gear bag into school that day but I was glad I played and got stuck in!”
Having finished the leaving Steven has wasted no time in returning to his beloved pitch at Kiltegan GAA grounds and is now back playing hurling and football.
“I played a Junior football match a few weeks ago so that definitely wasn’t a soft one to return to but I absolutely loved it and got stuck in from the start. My arm still had nowhere near the strength as before and is fairly much skin and bones but I suppose playing in that gave me a bit of extra confidence ahead of the hurling.”
Although Steven was fully committed to returning to the hurling pitch he never dreamed he’d be back in the senior ranks so was shocked when he was told he would be involved against Avondale at the weekend.”
“I was going to get re graded but then I wasn’t sure at the start of the year whether I’d play at all so I said I’d leave it in case someone else wanted to.
“To be involved at the weekend against Avondale was savage and if you had have said that 6 months ago I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
“I blasted over a goal chance so I was a bit sickened with that but other than that it was a class day and we won well so I’m over the moon really.”