‘Inside white lines only place for me’
Captain prior to his season-ending cruciate injury, the eight-time All Star wants to concentrate on getting his right knee perfect for next year.
He’s yet to speak to manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice about the idea of coming on board again, but reveals it’s currently looking less than likely.
“It’s a difficult one for me because all I know is playing in terms of Kerry. All I want to do is be a part of it out on the field and be involved in the big games.
“Being part of it in a different capacity whatever it might be — carrying the water bottles, just being around the dressing room and group — I don’t know.
“I haven’t had a chat with Eamonn about that but right now, I would find it difficult because I’m a player and that’s all I want to do.
“I’m convinced I’m going to be playing again next year. I want to come back and play. I want to be focused on that. Am I being a bit selfish on my part? Perhaps.
“Being away from it a little while will really drive me and refocus me and give me the bit of hunger.”
Speaking extensively for the first time since an operation on a fractured right knee and torn anterior cruciate ligament, Cooper was taken aback by the reaction to his injury picked up for Dr Crokes in their February All-Ireland club semi-final defeat to Castlebar Mitchels.
Was there too much bleating over it? Maybe. “I suppose there was a bit of emotion because people had seen me play for 12 years and when that’s happening you take it for granted.”
But then Cooper himself had felt he could keep his unbroken run of Championship games going back to his debut in 2002. “I was always very proud of that record that I played in every Championship game for Kerry because at some stage in your career you could be injured, suspended, sick or you will miss matches. But that was a record where I was saying, ‘wouldn’t it be fantastic if I could keep it my whole career’. Maybe I was thinking too far ahead and it got the better of me.
“But look, initially it’s hugely disappointing and it was difficult enough to leave it sink in and digest. But my outlook now is probably a lot more positive than it was a month or six weeks ago in terms of when I saw the knee when I came out of surgery. When you’re struggling to get up to go to the toilet, you’re saying, ‘how am I ever going to get back up on it on a Championship field?’
“But I’ve seen remarkable improvement in the last 10 days, two weeks, so that just tells me that it’s going to get there and it’s going to take time.”
It’s now seven weeks since surgeon Ray Moran took the scalpel to the 30-year-old’s knee, but you won’t see him in a Kerry jersey this season, he insists. Not even if they reach September. “With the damage I’ve done to the knee, it’s unrealistic to expect massive results over a short period of time.”
Cooper, with the help of crutches, took his seat in Austin Stack Park last Sunday only to see Kerry humbled by Cork. “If there is any time to get a kick in the ass or anything like that, last Sunday was the time to get it,” he says.
He doesn’t believe the prospect of having to beat Dublin in Croke Park a second time this season will put off Cork in this Sunday’s Division 1 semi-final. “I don’t think Cork will fear them, I think they will look forward to coming up to Dublin, they’ve beaten them already in the league. All I can say is I’ve seen Cork at first hand last weekend, and I thought they were quite good, possibly against a below-par Kerry. But I think they’ll match up well against Dublin at the weekend and they’ll have a big say in the Championship.”
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