REST’S THE ONLY CURE Dual star Rogers: I intend to keep playing both codes but I must give foot injury proper chance to heal
AN unusual foot injury will keep Brendan Rogers out of Derry’s early season promotion push – but he has pledged to maintain his dual status with both club and county.
Duals player are an endangered species in an environment that becomes more demanding each passing season, but the 24-year-old wants to continue playing hurling and football for Slaughtneil and Derry, even if it’s recently come at a cost.
“I have a torn plantar fascia on the outside of my foot, I couldn’t put my heel to the ground for a while and it’s still not great,” he says.
“It’s one of those injuries there’s not a pile you can do with it, it’s just rest until it’s fine and there’s no guarantee that rest for six months is going to do it, it could take eight. It depends on who you are and how well you look after it.”
He sustained the injury in the county hurling final in August and reckons it will rule him out until the mid-way point of Derry’s football league campaign.
“I’m getting well looked after and getting as much information as possible but I have to look after the fine details to make sure it doesn’t come back, because that’s the last thing I need,” he added.
Rogers still feels the dual game is a viable option for him, despite a conflicted season when he was pushed and pulled, contributing to a significant delay in his rehab.
Seven and a half weeks after suffering what should have been his season-ending injury, the 24-year-old was back out in an Ulster club hurling match (inset) for the six-in-a-row Derry champions.
A few days later he lined out in a championship replay defeat by Coleraine which ended the footballers’ five-in-a-row bid.
“I shouldn’t have been playing at all. I wasn’t fit, but that’s the nature of it. You play one (code) and you’re expected to play the other.”
Primarily Rogers will be a Derry footballer in 2019 and his hurling commitments will be what he describes as “fixture dependant”.
A number of them may be walking wounded around the Derry camp right now, but having the Slaughtneil contingent in from the start of the season can only help the footballers’ attempt try to make a speedy exit from Division Four.
Rogers added: “Everybody in Derry, players included, thought we shouldn’t be in Division Four and the harsh reality is that that’s where we are.
“We had the reality check, now we have to accept it and give the competition the respect it deserves and get back out of it.”