“I still don’t know if there was a pop, or a click, or anything like that. And I was clinging on to hope, walking off the field, that it mightn’t be as bad. But there was a lot of pain, something I had never come across before. So I knew there was some damage done.”
In recalling that cold February afternoon, some weeks later, it seemed Colm “Gooch” Cooper still couldn’t completely fathom the moment. How could so harmless a tackle, one he had stepped over or out of so many times before, suddenly become not just season-ending injury but potentially even career-ending?
Because that, in the days that followed, was part of the shock and the fear: not only would Cooper miss his first championship summer for Kerry in 12 years, ending a 76-game streak, going back to 2002, during which he scored a record 20 goals and 266 points, winning four All-Irelands and eight All Stars, but with his 31st birthday looming, no one could be sure he would ever make it back.
Of course no one had died. Yet for some people in Kerry it felt that way, that any hope of them winning the All-Ireland in 2014 died that afternoon, especially after the full implications of Cooper’s injury emerged. Not only had their captain and most instrumental played ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) of his right knee, he’d also torn the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), and fractured the kneecap itself. Kerry’s All-Ireland odds were damaged too, overnight, stretched from 6/1 to 9/1.
Recovery process It couldn’t have come at a worse time either, especially from Cooper’s immediate point of view, as it forced him out of his All-Ireland club semi-final, where his Dr Crokes team eventually lost to Castlebar Mitchells (that club title being the one and only honour left in the game Cooper had yet to win).
The following Friday, he went under the knife of knee surgeon specialist Dr Ray Moran, at the Santry Sports Clinic in Dublin, the fracturing of the knee bone further complicating the typical six-month recovery process from any standard ACL repair. In the days and weeks that followed even Cooper himself wasn’t sure if he’d ever make it back.
“I suppose having not had any major surgery like that before, and when you’re struggling to get up to go to the toilet, you’re saying, ‘how am I ever going to get back up on it on a championship field?’ I’m certainly resigned to the fact I won’t be playing in 2014. So that’s probably easier from my point of view, saying ‘look, the year is gone’. I just have to move on from it, and get it as right as I can.”
Meanwhile, Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice had no choice either but to move on from it. The problem, or rather the challenge, was convincing some of the younger players they were good enough to step into Cooper's boots. Time for some Vorsprung durch Technik, as they say in the German automobile business.
“Obviously Colm’s injury I didn’t foresee,” says Fitzmaurice. “But there’s a lot of talent there. And in a way, because they had to be thrown in at the deep end, they all had to show whether or not they were able for it. But there’s a great togetherness in the squad, and the lads have all bought into it big time.”
Step up Indeed, as the championship got underway, Cooper’s absence helped galvanise that togetherness: players like James O’Donoghue and Paul Geaney not only wanted to step up into his role, but wanted to step up for Cooper’s sake. Then, as Cooper’s rehabilitation reached the stage where he was able to participate in some Kerry training sessions, the galvanisation was complete.
“I remember I was coming home from Australia at the time, from work, stopped off in Dubai, and first head the news about Colm’s injury,” says Declan O’Sullivan. “And I was disgusted for him, at the time, because I knew how much it meant for him to play with Kerry, captain Kerry. And he’d such a good year, last year, that he was really, really up for this year.
“It would have been very easy for Colm to say ‘look, I haven’t had a summer off in 12 years’, and to go away and enjoy himself. But instead he’s stayed around, got back involved, and I really think that’s made it become much more of a positive than a negative.
“I think you’ve seen that in games, like against Mayo. Because you can talk all you want beforehand about sticking together, playing tough until the last minute, and really back each other. But only when the gun is put to your head to you really see what people are made of. So to come through a test like that, there was great satisfaction. We’re not just talking about honesty. It’s actually there. And players are coming on to play a role for the team, not just the individual roles.”
Inspiration
It certainly seems now as if Cooper, while not playing in person, has rallied the spirit of the team. When his club-mate at Dr Crokes, Kieran O’Leary, scored the crucial equalising point against Mayo in the drawn semi-final he admits he only had one inspiration in his mind.
“The Gooch has been extremely positive to have around,” says O’Leary. “All Colm has to do is open his mouth, and everybody wants to listen to him, because of his past experiences, and what he has done. He can give examples, from negative or positive experience, and once he is talking at all he is still brilliant. To have him around the camp, see him kicking ball as part of his rehab, has really upped the excitement. I’m sure he’d tell you himself he’s looking forward to Sunday as much as any of us.”
And, win or lose, 2015 suddenly seems not far away at all.
KERRY WITHOUT THE GOOCH
Eamonn Fitzmaurice (Kerry manager) "He been around with us the whole time, doing the warm-ups with us, and if we've needed someone to kick the ball into a conditioned game or whatever, he's been doing that too. He's also been very vocal around the place, in terms of helping forwards, or helping players in general. And that is an important role. So while, because of his injury, he is no longer our captain, he is still our captain, in other ways."
Cian O'Neill (Kerry coach and selector) "I certainly think when Colm's injury first happened, there was a huge disappointment. But, then, there was also a will, within the players, that they were going to do this for him. That's a very noble thing. As the year went by I think that's been the focus even more. And the fact Colm is around all the time, doing all his rehab with us, means he's still a really powerful influence on the team. Not just the forwards. So I certainly think that will is there, they'd like to win this one for him."
Declan O'Sullivan ( Kerry forward) "I think Eamonn Fitzmaurice has managed to use it as a real positive, and Colm himself has been inspiring fellas around the place, the way he been rehabbing, his dedication. It's a tough injury to come back from at any time, but to see him out training with us, that creates a real positive vibe around the place."
