Power’s story shows reality of burn-out

RICHIE POWER feels regrets. In pushing himself so hard to feature in last year’s All-Ireland final, he weakened his damaged knee so badly that retirement was the consequence.

Maybe, he wondered the other day, if he had rested up he could still be playing the game. Reading Power’s story, though, one could only conclude the damage was not done in 2015 but years previously.

In fact, Power (below) looks to be the personification of burnout, one of the great concerns in Gaelic games. He had his first knee operation at the age of 16. ‘And at that stage I was doing a lot of hurling,’ he explained.

‘You were probably playing Under 16 with club, colleges, county; (then playing) minors club, county, and Under 21 club. There was an awful lot going on but it’s no different to what the underage are doing today.’

And that’s precisely the problem.

How many future Powers are out there, young men who by the age of 30 will fear they may never run again? Power listed six teams he was serving as a 16 year old. That means six different managers with competing demands.

He said once he reached senior level, he only had two teams to worry about, club and county, but how much damage had been done by then? The GAA leadership seems to be serious about this issue, and they could do worse than ask Power to visit counties and tell his story.

His painful lesson needs to be learned.