‘I couldn’t bear the pain, I had to use my suitcase as a crutch’ – Neville’s road back
Athletics is a sport with a short memory. Fast times are quickly forgotten if an athlete finds themselves tangled in the morass of injury. From shoe brands to national governing bodies, the approach is often reminiscent of that Janet Jackson song What have you done for me lately?
Five years ago, Ciara Neville was an athlete in demand. At the age of 19, she blitzed to the national senior 100m title in 11.33 seconds, which made her the second fastest Irishwoman of all time.
By June 2021, everything was still rosy, Neville (right) within the cut-off on world rankings to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. But in Turku, Finland, six weeks before the Games, it all unravelled.
She felt a pop at the top of her hamstring while warming up, but it wasn’t painful to run on so she took to the blocks, needing ranking points. She ran a subpar 11.86, and only when she woke up the next day did she realise what she’d done.
Rehabbed
“I couldn’t bear the pain,” she says. “I could barely walk through the airport I had to use my suitcase as a crutch.” It was two weeks to Irish nationals, a key race for Olympic qualification, so Neville rested up, rehabbed, but could only finish fourth, clocking 11.69. The Tokyo dream was over. “It was a horrible weekend,” she says.
An MRI scan showed a partial tear in the conjoint tendon of her hamstring, which had partially ripped off the bone. Neville got platelet-rich plasma injections and did months of soul-crushing rehab but in the end, it was for nothing.
In January 2022, she was still struggling so she went to see Dr Jim O’Donovan at the Sport Ireland Institute, who sent her MRI results to a surgeon in England, Professor Fares Haddad. He told Neville that if they didn’t do an operation then to reconnect the tendon, it’d be needed at some point.
“I was like, ‘Please, now. Please, not all of this again’.”
She sought an ocean of opinions before going under the knife in April 2022. That October, on her 23rd birthday, she took her first, tentative steps back running, but it took another 10 months to get back racing. In Bern, Switzerland, last August, she clocked 11.90 for 100m, following it with two more races before going back into winter training.
Having finished at UL last May, Neville has been a full-time athlete since but no longer has a scholarship to fall back on, while her professional contract with Puma ended last December.
She was also dropped from funding by Athletics Ireland and so she was thrilled to be named as a recipient of support from the Jerry Kiernan Foundation, set up by Kiernan’s friend Murt Coleman, who’s worked tirelessly in recent years to recruit sponsorship.
“It means so much,” says Neville. “When you’re trying to be a full-time athlete and especially after an injury, you really learn who is there for you. I’m very lucky and grateful to have their support.”
During the winter, she relished being able to “plough on like a normal athlete” under the guidance of coach Noelle Morrissey. In February, Neville won the Irish Universities indoor 60m title in 7.45. “I wouldn’t be popping the champagne (about the time), but it’s nice to see the progression. It’s one step closer.”
She will open her outdoor season in May, the Limerick sprinter having a new appreciation for the simple act of lacing up her spikes.
“I hope when I’m on the start line, I can really say I’m back to the athlete I was,” she says. “That’s what I’m aspiring to be this summer.”