Hickey: Cats not complacent despite run
He was operated on before Christmas for the groin injury that so affected him last season (he barely made it back in time for the All-Ireland semi-final and final, though he did enough in those two games to earn himself yet another All-Star). Noel then found that even as he was in rehab from that operation, the other groin began to niggle, leading to another meeting with the surgeon.
“The first one, that groin was fierce sore, it had to be done; then the other one was iffy, it was felt I was better off to get it done straight away or it would just come at me again in the summer. I don’t know what caused it (the second groin injury) but it was just like a hernia; they patched it up, a piece of wire mesh gone in to keep it all together.”
