Kieran ready to do Star turn if called into battle
That’s Donaghy. As he says himself, the eternal optimist.
The latest prognosis is encouraging. The bone in Donaghy’s foot has healed well since Johnny McKenna, from Dublin’s Sports Surgery Clinic, performed the operation but there is still fluid gathering in the area which is causing pain when weight is placed on it.
“If I was asked with five minutes to go I couldn’t do much harm,” he said. “Hopefully they won’t need me. I’m gone. It’s only my own hope of being a part of it. The boys are well prepared and hoping we click.”
Contrary to some reports, Donaghy’s current injury is not identical to the one which had sidelined him for the two months prior to the Longford game though it is in the same area. The problem is centred on the left foot, just above the small toe, and the injury required that a new, bigger screw be inserted. It was hugely unfortunate given the fact he had returned for the Longford game in full health.
“The landing was fine,” he said of the 46th minute incident that has sidelined him. “Barry Gilleran — in fairness to him he sent me a letter afterwards — hit my leg and rolled my foot. The screw tilted, bent inside in the bone. If I didn’t have that screw I would have broken three or four of the bones. It would have ruled me out for the rest of the year completely.”
The problem now is the specialists hadn’t much experience of his last operation — whereby they removed one screw and replaced it with a larger version — so a definitive recuperation period is impossible to predict.
“The last time, after four weeks I could go running. After six weeks I could jump, after seven weeks I could twist and turn. After eight weeks I could play. The Longford game was 10 weeks.
“My blocks were perfect and I could focus on a regime. Now it is a case of we don’t know. It’s when the pain goes away you can go back and test it.”
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