Ian McKinley, the 24-year-old ex-Ireland Under-20 and Leinster outhalf, has completed a remarkable recovery from enforced retirement three years ago after losing the sight in one eye to signing a professional playing contract with Italian Super 10 side Viadana.
McKinley had resumed playing with the Serie C side Leonorso, whom he had joined in a coaching capacity just over two years ago, last March thanks to the advent of "goggles" his brother Philip had discovered and which the IRB are trialling in large part thanks to McKinley.
In 10 games he scored 128 points, including five tries.
“I’m not boasting. The standard was not very high. You’re talking of guys having cigarettes before, during and after the game, with a pint in their hand while they were playing,” McKinley quips.
Even so, Viadana were sufficiently impressed to offer him a one-year contract which McKinley was only too eager to accept.
For the last week, the one-time St Columba’s wonderkid is back being what he always wanted to be, a professional rugb y player.
“It’s what I do every day now,” he says with understandable contentment. “I’m thrilled. To think that after 33 months of not playing, and then 10 games with a Serie C side, which I would liken to J3/J4 level, to this. It’s a bit of a risk for them (Viadana) but I’m still in prime physical condition. I don’t even like to call it a problem with my eye because I’ve overcome it with exercises and tailored my way of playing, and trying to use your other senses as best you can.
“So for me I’m back to as much of a complete player as I can be. I still need to prove that at a higher level again. But I’m still 24 so I have time to see if I can go a bit further. But I’m very happy for the time being, just to be back playing and to maximise whatever ability you have.”
Horrific accident
Initially the victim of a freakish and horrific accident when a stud in a UCD team-mate’s trailing boot caught his eye in an AIL game in January 2010, McKinley regained 70 per cent of the sight in his left eye to resume playing with St Mary’s and Leinster.
He scored a try and set up another with a wonderful dummy when Joe Schmidt granted him his sole start for Leinster in the 30-5 win at home to Treviso in February 2011 to fulfil a lifetime ambition, albeit sensing he was "on borrowed time".
But the day after Leinster's epic Heineken Cup final win over Northampton the ensuing May, McKinley was forced off a Leinster Development match against the Ireland Under-20s with blurred vision due to a cataract. The retina detached from his left eye and despite three operations, he was forced to retire.
Now, as well as the goggles, he wears a scrum cap for additional protection. “In the year I got back playing after my accident two people tried to gouge my good eye.
“That’s the only reason I wear the scrumcap, and some people might give you a few looks in the warm-up or during the game, but I find them fine. I’m getting used to them (the goggles) every time I wear them. It’s just like wearing a scrum cap. They might annoy you the first time but they get a little better with time.”
Initially, McKinley moved to Udine two years ago to coach the under-age sides in that region: “firstly to get away from Ireland because my head was all over the place, just with the decision to stop playing.
Great opportunity
“Ireland, and Dublin, is quite a small place and I just needed some head space, and I got a great opportunity with this new club Leonorso, and I had two great years there. I wanted to learn another language and have a completely different experience to, say, going back to university and doing something different.”
Udine borders Slovenia and Croatia, whereas now he has moved four hours by road south to Parma and an apartment which is a two-minute drive to Zebre’s home ground.
“It’s a pretty nice city, and a lot bigger than where I was.”
Life in Italy has been good for him and his girlfriend. He is fluent (“It makes a mockery of learning Irish for 13 years and you can’t speak a word of it.”) and loves the culture, the food and the climate, even if he sweats a good deal more than his new team-mates due to his additional headwear for 7am or tea-time sessions to avoid the more excessive heat, though they are still conducted in the low 30s.
Not that his Italian odyssey wasn’t without its difficulties.
“To be honest, I was fairly sad the whole time. I wasn‘t myself. For any rugby player, if you can’t stop on your own terms it’s something that’s quite hard to accept, especially at 21. Philip did a lot for me in trying to get these goggles pushed forward so we worked a little with the IRB and a student in Dublin.
“He helped design the goggles, so we gave it the last little push. They’re still something of an unknown item but I’m hoping to push it into the limelight a little bit more because for me it’s a very important thing,” he says with an understated chuckle.
“The material is made out of polycarbonate, so they’re fairly strong. They’re strong enough to prevent a stud or someone punching you through the goggles, but they’re flexible enough to play in so they won’t hurt any other player or yourself. They’ve a strap going round them so you sort of look like a 1940s pilot.
“They don’t’ fog up and the company that makes them is called Raleri, in Bologna. The IRB got in contact with them and have been working with them on what the best design would be, and I’ve actually built up a friendship with the guy who owns the company and I now live only an hour away from Bologna, and they have done promotional stuff with pictures of me in the goggles.”
Coaching career
Viadana, who have the stadium and facilities previously used by Aironi, have discussed continuing McKinley’s fledgling coaching career with their youths teams. “That’s what I’ve done for the last two years,” says McKinley of his coaching career, “so I wouldn’t want to lose what I’ve done. I’ve done my Level 1s and my Level 2s.”
But playing is his rediscovered priority. Still a “leftie”, goal-kicking outhalf, McKinley can also still spiral a ball 50 or 60 metres.
Pre-season friendlies start in a month, with the championship beginning in October. If he describes it as a risk for Viadana, people will wonder if it is a risk for him.
“I don’t think about that because I think if you go in thinking it’s a risk you mightn’t perform to the best of your ability. Everyone knows that when you step onto a rugby field anything can happen. I just wanted to make sure after the two gouging incidents that I’m fully protected in the best way that I can be, which is good for my mental preparation and my physical preparation.
“After this whole experience you can never predict what can happen so I’m just happy. I’m living in a beautiful city, enjoying Italian culture, enjoying a different language and a different viewpoint on rugby. It’s certainly different to Ireland, and we’ll just see how it goes.”
