‘Players should not be out of pocket’

Dear Frank,

Initially Colin Lane and I myself thought it was just a muscular problem and that it would go away with some physiotherapy treatment and by sitting out the odd training session. I got through the 2008 season still being able to play but by the end of it I noticed that the injury was after deteriorating and that it was now starting to affect me even in my general daily activities. Colin advised me that perhaps I just needed to take about three months of complete rest over the winter and that perhaps, this would suffice.

Unfortunately this didn’t work for me and when we went back training in Mallow at the beginning of 2009, the problem was after getting worse. I was named on the league panel for the first game against Meath but the Thursday night beforehand, I informed Conor I would be unable to even take a place on the bench. I tried various alternative options in the following weeks in an attempt to relieve the symptoms for example other physiotherapists, osteopaths, steroid injections etc., but unfortunately all to no avail.