How every tweak is possible disaster in All-ireland title race
ON Saturday night in Parnell Park, as he hared towards Kilkenny’s goal, Cian O’sullivan’s hamstring went.
He knew. Instantly. Regardless of how far Dublin’s season might extend beyond Sunday’s visit to Salthill, O’sullivan’s summer was over.
On Monday evening, Mayo football management confirmed via email the worst fathomable news in the context of their remaining season and what it might become.
Paddy Durcan was gone with an ACL rupture. Given the all too well-known spec of that particular injury, it is unlikely Mayo’s captain will wear their jersey again before next year’s Connacht SFC.
Another, Derry’s Pádraig Mcgrogan, recently revealed himself to be in the same longterm absentee dock.
It wasn’t so long ago when only ACL injuries, maybe an Achilles rupture, and the rare very severe hamstring injury — the sort the that scythed O’sullivan down — were considered potentially ruinous for a season.
That was the time of the great, sprawling inter-county season. A great voyage of discovery. Of vast chunks of free time for recovery and rest between games.
Now? Well, there is little time for anything. Neither to repair or prepare. Barely to breathe even.
Hence, every nick, every strain, every twinge is treated with the utmost gravity.
The numbers demonstrate why.
Since 2007, the GAA Medical, Scientific and Welfare Committee, in partnership with UCD, has been developing a centralised national GAA injury database.
It is an opt-in system. Participating inter-county teams register injuries throughout their season.
According to information published on their website, the chance of a player sustaining one or more time-loss injuries over a season is 70 per cent for footballers and 73 per cent for hurlers.
You only have to marry that data with the schedule of the next few weeks to see why twanging a hammer or jarring a knee now is risking Armageddon.
This year’s All-ireland Football Final will be played on July 28, 67 days from today. The GAA’S injury data reveals footballers lose an average of 26 days of training/ playing per knock.
The hurling decider is just 60 days away. For hurlers, on average, 30 days are lost per injury.
Exposure is drastically increased, too. Players are at much higher risk of injury now due to the added number of games. It is also the period of the season when most are likely to play with a pre-existing injury.
Although inter-county players spend roughly 90 per cent of their season training compared to 10 per cent playing games, more than half (56 per cent) of injuries are sustained during matches.
The footballers who contest this year’s All-ireland Final will have to play between four and six games from now to get there. For hurlers, it will be three or four high-intensity games.
Which is why, wherever you are this weekend, you’ll see it. The flash of panic. A player down. Clutching an ankle or slowly rotating a shoulder. A sprinting physio. The look of dread on a manager’s face.
These are the moments on which your county’s season could hinge.