HURLEY WANTS TO PROVE DOUBTERS WRONG
Hurley determined to prove doubters wrong
IT’s hard not to grimace when Cork football star Brian Hurley describes his injury nightmare and how his hamstring dropped down to the back of his knee after ripping the muscle completely off the bone.
He likens the pain to “some fella taking me out with a sniper” and were it not bad enough for it to happen once, the potentially career-ending injury was suffered again not long after his initial recovery.
Medical professionals said that he would never play again after the second occurrence – Irish rugby legend Paul O’Connell was forced to retire because of a similar injury – but Hurley refused to take no for an answer.
While admitting that he was no scholar during his schooling, he studied hamstring surgeons religiously in his search for a solution before happening upon Professor Haddad in London’s Princess Grace Hospital.
Strong
With a strong support base around him, the Castlehaven forward went under the knife and “left no stone unturned” in his mission to don the red and white of Cork once again.
There were dark days when he “felt like a robot” with his leg in a brace 90 degrees behind him in order to prevent further aggravation as he operated on one leg for eight weeks.
Different people were dropping ice to his door, collecting him to take him out of the house while his employers – packaging company Abco Kovex – ferried him to Dublin for a week to help clear his head as well as providing him with an automatic car in order to carry out his sales rep duties.
All of that was to try and keep his playing dream alive and the 27-yearold admits that had it not been for his ultra-competitive nature, he wouldn’t have been able to resurrect his career.
“I was told I wouldn’t play at that level again. That’s not the easiest thing, some fella telling you that straight in the eyes, especially a guy telling you that’s never kicked a football before and doesn’t understand what it means to you,” he says.
“So, I took it on the chin. I didn’t know what to do or where to go, but I wasn’t accepting it. It was one of the toughest things I’ve ever heard but I just said I need to get back playing.
“I’m just a competitive person, if we were playing a game of snap, I’d have to win it. If we’re playing FIFA or whatever, I have to win it, I’d be sour if I lost so I wasn’t taking that.”
Hurley’s Twitter bio reads “Gaelic Footballer with Castlehaven & Cork” and that illustrates the lengths which he was willing to travel “to try to get back to doing what I love” with a tattoo on his left shoulder a constant reminder of why he does it all.
It depicts “a boy with a ball down on the pier in Union Hall looking out over the sea with the dream of a house, a cup and a pitch in his future” and it triggers exactly why he started playing football.
There was much negativity surrounding Cork during Hurley’s recovery as they spiralled downwards but despite ropey moments like learning to walk again, his return to form has heralded a change in fortunes for Ronan McCarthy’s men.
Relegation from Division 2 was off-set by a blistering summer campaign where they gave Kerry an almighty scare in the Munster final before matching Dublin for long periods in their Super 8 clash in Croke Park.
Hurley was in electrifying form the same night and would wind up with an All-Star nomination for his attacking exploits as he played with a freedom that saw him reach the heights which he always threatened to hit.
Excitement
“Whatever it is, I don’t get nervous anymore,” Hurley says. “Big games, Croke Park, the excitement, I have been through the mill and I kinda flip it. I missed out on two and half, three years. So whatever it is, I don’t fear it. “Maybe they cut some nerve down there (laughs), I am not sure. The nervousness, I flip it to excitement because I missed out on so much, it is just good to be back in around the boys, it is different.
“To have the craic, the small things, the WhatsApp group, the banter, you missed all that because you distanced yourself a small bit because you felt that you weren’t participating with the lads. “It makes you a lot stronger person. It was a temporary injury. There was a lot of people a lot worse off, paralysation and what not, I have met them all. It opens your eyes to how lucky you are.
“It makes you a much more grateful person for what you have. I can remember trying to get up the stairs and it would take me ten minutes. Getting out of bed, trying to put on your socks, I could do none of that when I was in the brace.
“I run up stairs now. Don’t ask me why, but I just want to get up as fast as I can do it. It is so weird. It is definitely challenging, but it 100 per cent makes you a stronger person.”
Hurley admits that there’s “a very weird feeling” in his hamstring and it feels “much tighter as it’s pinned up” but he persists with daily strength and conditioning to make sure that he can perform to his best.
He has no intention of resting on his laurels, however, and wants to prove more people wrong en route to helping Cork back to the big time.
“Number one is to win an All-Ireland. Number two is to prove everyone else who told me I couldn’t get back, to prove them all wrong, the people who told me that I was finished. There is more in me, there is a few more years in me. There is more there and it is just about us getting it out of ourselves,” concludes Hurley.