Forward-thinking Begley plays down talk of quick return

LIMERICK football star, Brian Begley has played down speculation of an immediate return to inter-county action.

The long-term injury victim made his comeback with a second-half appearance for his club, Mungret, in their first-round intermediate championship loss to Ballysteen on Sunday.

Begley said that delight at his return is somewhat premature, stressing the appearance was purely experimental.

"It's been 10 months since I got the injury in the Munster championship hurling replay against Waterford.

"I had been having problems with the knee, but that's fine now. It was the ankle which was troubling me and that was probably due to a lot of damage down the years.

"Ever since then, it's been very frustrating, especially when you're out that long.

"The real problem is that no one seems to know exactly what's wrong.

"If you knew what it was, how long it was going to take, even if it was six months, whatever, you could get on with it.

"But when you don't know if you're doing the right thing or the wrong thing, if you don't know whether you're going to be back, or if you're going to be out for the year, it's very frustrating. I was with Dr Pat O'Neill in Dublin last week, he's sending me for another MRI scan, so he told me to try it out and see how it reacted.

"If it was aggravated, then something will show up in the scan, hopefully."

And the reaction?

"It was sore enough afterwards. It's not weak, it's not going to go on me, or anything like that; it's just that I don't have much movement in it and that's catching me."

So what of a comeback?

"I just don't know. I was hoping to be back by now, a fella would want to be getting there by now. I'm doing a lot in the gym alright, but that game with Mungret was the first time I was on a pitch in over six months.

"There's only so much a fella can do in the gym, but I'm trying to be optimistic about it.

"It doesn't look good for the first-round game, against Tipp, but I'm not giving up on it."