Woodlock eager to make up for lost time

THE new season is a few weeks old but already we may have seen the most welcome good-news story of 2011.

At half-time in Tipperary’s loss to WIT in the preliminary round of the Waterford Crystal senior hurling tournament on Sunday, James Woodlock was introduced and almost immediately made an impact with a surging run before passing to fellow midfielder Seán Casey for a fine point.

For the Tipperary supporters who had travelled to Clonmel to see the All-Ireland champions in action for the first time this year, and for new manager Declan Ryan especially, it was a heartening sight to see Woodlock back in business after a miserable 15 months on the sidelines.

On October 18th 2009, six weeks after playing a major part in bringing Tipperary within an ace of dethroning Kilkenny as All-Ireland champions, Woodlock’s hurling world was shattered.

In the final minutes of a disappointing Tipperary SHC final, the Drom-and-Inch star suffered an horrendous double leg break after an accidental entanglement with his fellow county-player Padraic Maher

Fifteen months it’s taken, 15 months of rehab, 15 months during which Woodlock often despaired.

Last Sunday, then, inauspicious an occasion as it may have been, was a big deal for Woodlock.

“I’m just happy to be back,” he admitted. “I didn’t think I’d be back this early but Declan (Ryan) asked me the other night, would I be able for a match on Sunday. I kind of said ‘no’ at the start of training, but then towards the end I was feeling good so I said I’d be able for something anyway. I got the half in, so I’m happy enough. It’s been tough, 15 months out, not catching a hurley — this was my first competitive match since then. My first training session was last Thursday night, that’s all I’ve done.”

And still, with that typical Woodlock pacy surge through the middle just four minutes into the half, with the manner in which he went on to control matters around his area of the park, it looked like he’d never been away

“I don’t know about that, it didn’t feel like that after five minutes! But it feels good now, you feel a small bit of pain but it is not too bad, and that will go in time, hopefully.”

So, the worst of the work is over, the worst weeks now only a bad memory.

“For the first six weeks I did nothing, I was in the bed; once I got out of that, Cian O’Neill and John Casey (Tipp trainer and physio, respectively) were on to me giving me programmes and I just worked and worked and worked.

“I thought for a while I’d get back last year but I just couldn’t, it took ages. The break was so bad it just took its own time.’’

There were bad times, times when he despaired of ever getting back.

“I did, yes — the first night I went back doing a bit of jogging I really felt it. I went in to training and said to John (Casey) — ‘it’s never going to come!’. He said ‘Fine; tog off, put on a pair of shorts, and go in your bare feet,’ and that’s how it started. One lap you’d take 10 minutes off, then another lap and another 10 minutes off, then that night I had to get an injection into the hip to kill the pain. And that’s the way I got back, bit by bit.

“I’ve been back riding horses since October, that was the start of it, riding horses builds up the muscles in the leg as quick as anything, then I was doing a bit of running, a bit of racquetball here and there, twisting and turning. I was out of work for eight months (he’s a Garda) and could have been out for longer but I just had to get back, and thank God they gave me an office job, so that was grand. I’m still based in Kilkenny, and it was a lot better this year than last year!”

It was, in so far as Woodlock didn’t have to endure the slagging he’d been getting down in Cat country for the previous four years, but it was a lot worse also, in that even as he savoured Tipperary’s triumph, he surely also suffered the agony of missing out, thus the motivation to persevere with his recovery programme. “I wasn’t going to stop, I only have a few more years at it — keep going as much as possible. I missed all last year, a huge year for Tipperary, missed the year with the club as well, I must try now to get back with both.”