CONVINCED THINGS ARE ANY BETTER
‘OP COULD HAVE ENDED MY CAREER’
LEE Chin recalls his surgeon telling him that a knee reconstruction could end his career.
It would have meant two years on the sidelines with no guarantees, but there was an alternative for the Wexford All Star. He could go down the rehab route.
Chin (31) damaged his posterior cruciate ligament playing in a ‘Super 11s’ hurling game in New York against Limerick on an astro pitch back in late 2019.
“The consultant did recommend surgery on it, a full reconstruction of the knee,” he says.
“But he just thought with the age that I was at the time (27), the PCL reconstruction can sometimes take up to two years recovery.
“He just thought, look I’d be possibly ending your career here if I was to do a full reconstruction. That’s why we decided not to go with it and just take the rehab route and hope for the best.”
Chin had no idea at the time he fell of the extent of the damage he’d done. He went from New York to Florida for a Wexford team holiday after their Leinster Championship victory, and then on to the All Stars in Abu Dhabi.
“I remember there was instant pain. You fall an awful lot in games but this one I just fell directly on the knee,” said the Faythe Harriers man. “My whole body weight went down on the knee. I suppose it was at the end of the year when you’d be at your extra heaviest. It didn’t help.
“When it happened I got up from the ground and I remember playing on for an extra 10 minutes. I remember
I just couldn’t do certain things.
The knee had started to swell.
“I was being stubborn enough. just staying out there on the field to be honest and eventually I put my hand up to say, ‘No I can’t, there is something wrong here.’
Field
“So, I just got off the field. We actually flew to Florida and I remember on the plane the knee just went absolutely huge.”
It was almost a month before Chin got a scan and the full extent of the damage was revealed.
“It was a time of year you wanted to get out, go travelling and get away,” he says.
“In your head you were thinking, ‘Ah look, maybe it’s just something minor, something small,’ and I wasn’t too worried about it. I wasn’t under major stress when I was away. “I know there was the All Star game. I didn’t play in that because of the knee and I just said, ‘Look, I’ll wait and get my scan once I get home.’“
Chin has been troubled by hamstring issues ever since, but has remained a key player for Keith Rossiter (inset).
“I’d take the odd hamstring injury for still being able to play, yes of course,” he says. “Thankfully I am still on the field and still able to keep going so it’s worked out for the best I think.”
Chin does year-round rehab, keeping his quad and hamstring strong. “That’s how I am able to remain on the field,” he says.
“If I let those things go weak, that’s where you are in the red zone and you could end up in a bit of bother. God knows what could happen. Who knows?”
Chin has spoken to his surgeon about implications down the line.
“Am I going to be in a spot of bother here?,” he says. “Look, they are not answers he can give me. Everyone is different. Some lads might react differently to it.”