Tyrone legend Colm Cavanagh has endured a horrid year in terms of playing football, in fact he has barely played any football at all in 2024.
At 37 years old the two-time All-Star winner was still going strong for his club Moy Tír na nÓg, but a nasty injury meant that he missed the entire league, opening championship game, and even considered retiring completely.
Speaking on The Puke Football Podcast, Cavanagh revealed the extent of the injury, and just how dark things became.
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I have had a nightmare year to be honest. I had done maybe two training sessions in pre-season but had hurt my hamstring tendon the previous year and had done nothing about it, so I told the manager I would take a month or so to try and shake it off and about five or six weeks into that rehab I hurt my pelvis.
“I was just doing a bit of core work, but I had probably done maybe two or three sessions in a row and something nipped. The following day I couldn’t walk, it was an extreme pain for a week or two.
“I couldn’t turn over, I couldn’t really sleep because I couldn’t lay on my side, and this went on for a number of weeks.
“It just rumbled on and I had to go and seek specialist advice because nothing was really working. Just walking about or laying down became an issue.
“The season was running on, I had done no training and the pain was settling, but it was so, so slow, and the only thing I could do was be in the gym
“Eventually I had to bite the bullet and get a steroid injection, and even that was speculative because I couldn’t get it injected into the actual part where the pain was, but it worked to a certain degree and that was just two weeks before the Rock game.
“I managed to do part of a training session with the team the Sunday before the Rock game and a bit more again on the Wednesday, but it was very light stuff.
“The management told me that they were going to start me, which was a bit of a risk because I had done absolutely no training, but I suppose it paid off.”
32mins 2nd Half
Rock: 0-12(12)
Moy: 1-10(13)
Moy point from play Colm Cavanagh— Tyrone GAA live scores (@markone58522525) September 22, 2024
It certainly paid off, as games don't get much more competitive than they do in the intermediate Tyrone championship, so for Cavanagh to be thrust into the starting team in the quarter-final against the Rock, was a massive achievement in itself.
However, before he was able to put the boots back on, the ex county star had to have some serious conversations with himself about considering retirement and maybe moving into coaching.
“It was a real mental battle for me this season. I’ve always had aspirations of going into management and coaching, so I had a few people contact me asking why I wasn’t playing and if I would be interested in this or that.
“Mentally I was struggling with not being able to play or train and someone swiping my identity of being a GAA player, and I’m sure my wife would say that I maybe wasn’t a very fun character.
“I was coming to terms with ‘I might never play the game again’ and not going out on my own terms; it just didn’t sit right with me.”
The Puke Interview: Colm Cavanagh
The Tyrone legend joins Lee on the show as they discuss:
- Coming back from a nightmare pelvic injury🤕
- Considering retirement and going into coaching🤔
- Playing full championship game and scoring the winner despite not playing all year🔥 pic.twitter.com/3KxHN1JJLO— Lee Costello (@PukeFootballPod) October 4, 2024
Not only did Cavanagh play the full quarter-final, he also scored the winner, of his supposed weaker foot, deep into injury time to send his team to the semi-finals.
It is clear to see that despite already achieving so much in Gaelic football already, the Moy clubman still has a lot offer the game.
For the winner (against the Rock), I was on my left side and turning in to kick on my right would have been my preferred option, but I was out on my feet so I took the shot on from there.
“I’m not known for my scoring but I was a forward for a lot of years. Sometimes you just have to back yourself in these moments in games.
“It certainly won’t work everyday, and it is a wee bit of a fairytale, but we still have a lot of work to do because it was only a quarter-final.
“But I won’t lie, it was a nice moment and not something that I maybe expected of myself going into the game cold.”
You can listen to the full interview on The Puke Football Podcast here: The Puke Interview: Colm Cavanagh
