BOUNCING BACK
Moran is living proof that cruciate curse can be lifted in Kerry
DAVID MORAN is breathing proof that the darkest hour is t r uly before t he dawn. In a season where cruciate injuries have already laid low the two centre-forwards from last September’s epic All-Ireland semi-final — Kerry’s Colm Cooper and Dublin’s Ciarán Kilkenny — the 25-year-old Kerins O’Rahilly’s clubman serves as a reminder that you can come back stronger and better.
On Sunday afternoon, just as official word broke that Dublin star Kilkenny had ruptured his cruciate ligament in last Saturday night’s League win over Kildare, Moran was on the Fitzgerald Stadium pitch receiving a man-of-thematch award. That was in recognition of his performance in Kerry’s first Allianz Football League win this season — a 15-point mauling of Tyrone.
“It shows your career can be taken away”
In a household where his father Ogie has eight Celtic crosses decorating the mantelpiece, the little piece of crystal might struggle for exhibit space but, truth be told, nothing there previously was harder won.
He endured two cruciate injuries inside 10 months and when he finally got himself back on the pitch last summer, he sustained the kind of injury that gifts instant perspective. He was sprung from the bench in a challenge game against Laois in Killarney last May, and in one of his first plays plucked a kick-out from the sky, but was hit by a stray elbow which resulted in a tear to his retina.
‘I was rushed up to CUH [Cork University Hospital] and got surgery. There was complete blindness just that day and night. But it kind of came back gradually over a period that followed.
‘It was almost a blessing in disguise because it made me almost forget about my knee,’ said Moran with a laugh.
That he can poke fun at his scarred left knee takes some doing, because the road back has been long and lonesome.
Back in 2008, he was hailed as Darragh Ó Sé’s natural successor, producing a spell-binding performance when Kerry beat Kildare in that year’s Under 21 final.
Later that summer, when Monaghan took Kerry down the home straight in a third-round qualifier in Croke Park, it was Moran who came up with a huge play to win the ball to set up Kieran Donaghy for their winning goal.
By early spring 2011 he was in pole position to nail down a place under Jack O’Connor when he ruptured his cruciate in a League game on t he r oad against Monaghan (below).
Ten months of solitude and rehab later, he just was back on the training pitch with his club when it went and he had to start all over again.
He is not the first serial cruciate survivor — Cork’s Colm O’Neill has just come back from three — but what amazes more than the resolve he has shown in coming back is how he has refused to let it compromise him. ‘ One t hing l eads to another and if it happens, it happens. It’s no different to breaking your finger and coming back. I don’t think you can afford to be worried about your knees,’ said Moran.
‘I don’t think you can go into a game thinking “Jeez, if I do it today!” ‘You just have to grow into the team game and do your bit.’ To that end, he has dovetailed impressively with Anthony Maher in midfield, providing Kerry with a greater
degree of mobility than was offered last season by Johnny Buckley. It would be wrong, though, to suggest he has been totally unaffected by the trauma visited on him, but he chosen to take the positives and leave the bad stuff behind.
‘I definitely appreciate it more now. When you’re growing up, you’re thinking your career isn’t taken away from you until you are in your 30s. It just shows that at any moment it can be taken away,’ said Moran. ‘I’m there now, enjoying and appreciating it and knowing it was much better than two years ago when I was just doing rehab sessions and I was laid up.
‘When you’re doing a rehab it’s a lonely spot. You go from meeting your friends three or four days a week at training, having the craic to j ust complete i s ol ati on. That’s a negative and you have to go away and do the hard work. It’s great to come through.’
When the county went into shock last month at the revelation that Cooper was gone for the season, Moran restricted himself to a simple text to his captain.
‘I texted him and said I was gutted for him but that I wanted to give him space because, at the start, there’s a lot of people wishing you well. I said I would be there for any support he needs.
‘It’s like anything — you just have to get on with it. If we keep bringing it up it might become an excuse, which we don’t want.
‘That’s all you can do. It’s Gooch — you’re not going to replace him. We just have to try and come together and as a team get better. We still believe we’re good enough to win an All-Ireland.
‘We have to, otherwise we’re wasting our time.’
And he has wasted enough of that already.