Frustration finally over for Mayo’s Mortimer

CONOR MORTIMER admits he found it difficult to watch Mayo games during his season on the sidelines last year.

It’s 18 months since his last appearance in green and red but the 2006 All Star made his competitive return as a substitute scoring two points in Sunday’s FBD Connacht League win over Leitrim.

Mortimer reported no problems with his left knee — on which he had cruciate surgery last February — and is keen on making amends for a frustrating enforced spell out of the set-up.

“It wasn’t easy watching the team play at all for me. I’ve never found it easy to watch games, I just want to play in them.

“They had a successful year under Jimmy [James Horan] but I wanted to be involved that much it was difficult to take in the games.”

Mortimer was understandably glad to get a game, even if it wasn’t a full one, under the belt as he aims to force himself into Horan’s Allianz Football League Division 1 plans.

“The obvious thing to say is it’s good to be back but it is. It’s a long road but you do the hard work and you do your programme. You put your head down and that’s the way it is.”

Last year Mortimer finally admitted defeat to the injury after battling without a cruciate in his knee for the previous seven years.

He never doubted he would return but heard some scare stories about recurrences of the injury.

“When you’re talking to some people who have broken down the second time and the cruciate’s gone on them again, it rings home just how important it is to do things right.

“But I played a few club games before Christmas and I’ve been training the last four months. The confidence is back in the head, as such.

“When that’s there you know you’re on the right track. You can only go by what the surgeon tells you and I’ve done that.”

Mortimer finds himself trying to make up for lost time while he is one of 12 players battling it out to be included among the forwards in Horan’s league squad.

The Shrule-Glencorrib man, who recently transferred to Dublin club Parnells, doesn’t think his experience will be enough to curry favour with the manager.

“You can’t take anything for granted, you’ve just got to work your arse off to try and get in there.

“It’s about getting back to where you were first and then improving on that. If you stay the same as you were five years ago you’ll be left behind because the game has moved on.

“It’s good to have competition. I’m just another player and I intend plugging away and seeing where it gets me. No-one has been picked to play on any team at the minute. Only if you’re good enough and in form will you be picked.”

Mortimer only had his first pitch training session with Mayo last Friday but was in touch with his team-mates last year enough to know it’s an impressive unit.

“Every manager brings their own set-up and Jimmy’s proven to be top-class. It was a great year last year. He’s now brought in Cian O’Neill and his record with Tipperary stands out. You can’t get a better structure around you.”

Meanwhile, the GAA yesterday released details of the trial match bans system which will come into operation for this year’s Allianz League and All-Ireland senior championships.

Any match-based suspension incurred in either competition is restricted to those campaigns only unless a ban is picked up in a county’s last championship game or either of the All-Ireland finals, where it would then be brought forward to next year’s league.

Any player deemed to have committed a repeat infraction in the 2012 league or championship after doing so in either of the 2011 competitions will be suspended under the new match-based principle. Time-based bans are retained for the more serious category I, IV and V offences and are not exclusive to the two competitions.