“Seeing the lads with their mams did give me a pang of homesickness and Ihad to text Pauline for a ‘virtual’ hug!”
THERE’S no place like home they say, but I think ‘there’s no one like your mammy!’ is more appropriate.
I’m not too macho to say that I miss my family and friends and home over here, but last week was particularly tough.
My club - Carlton Blues - organised a ‘Mother’s Day’ last week where they invited all the player’s mams in for a tour of the club, a few talks and a cup of coffee.
It was a lovely idea, but with our mams back in Louth Village and Cork, myself and Ciaran Sheehan didn’t really know what to be doing with ourselves.
But seeing the lads with their mams did give me a pang of homesickness and I had to text Pauline for a ‘virtual’ hug!
But that ‘ordeal’ apart, it’s all good news this week.
I’m pencilled in to return to full training on Tuesday and I just can’t wait.
It’s only a training session and I probably won’t even take a full part in it, but it feels like the build-up to a big game!
Anyone who has suffered a cruciate tear will tell you how long and lonely the road back can be.
Luckily, the worst part is the start, and it slowly gets better every week as you take on new challenges and hit different targets set by the medical team.
But the boredom can get you down at times. Being injured over the close season meant that there weren’t too many of the guys in rehab, so I was flying solo a lot of the time, doing light training and gym work while the lads were slogging it out in pre-season.
At the start of the season there were a few other guys on the injury list, so at least I had a bit of company, but over the last few weeks I’ve been on my own again, and now that I’m close to a return, it feels like Christmas Eve!
It’s been a mixed bag for the lads so far. We lost to St Kilda on Saturday night, but we won the two before that against Collingwood and Sydney Swans, which kind of turned our season around as we’d lost four of our first five games before that.
This Sunday we play Fremantle, who are a few places above us in the AFL ladder, so it’s an important game for the lads.
Although I’m injured I do have to ‘work’ at the games, attending pre-match functions to speak to guests and sponsors. That’s all part of the contract and it can be good craic at times.
But I want to be out on the pitch warming up with the lads.
Fingers crossed that won’t be too far away now.
I’ll probably come back in a VFL game with the Northern Blues or even the Development Squad, but I’d be happy to line out with the U-14s at this stage!
The plan now is to keep taking it one step at a time until that first game.
Getting my head right for the twists and turns and impacts of full training will be just as important as the physical challenges. My knee is well healed at this stage so I have to trust my body and not hold anything back.
I feel like I have to prove myself to Brendan Bolton and the coaches all over again, but that’s okay with me.
With our against game against St Kilda on the same day as Louth’s Leinster Championship match against Wicklow it’s going to be a Super Sunday for me.
I’ll hopefully be able to tune in on GAA GO online, but Colm Corrigan on LMFM and Twitter will do the job if not.
By all accounts Louth should win, but you can’t take anything for granted these days. Good luck to Colin Kelly and the lads, and of course, my brother Decky.