Bill Cooper: Cork have a lot of ground to make up

Bill Cooper’s involvement with Cork came to a sudden halt a few years ago. The Youghal hurler was gathering momentum as a hard-working half-forward when his body betrayed him.

“I was involved in 2010 and 2011, but I got a back injury and was out for 14 months, so I came back in 2014. I had a bulging disc in my back. I was crippled with shooting pains in the leg and all of that. They wouldn’t operate because it’s tricky and they felt I was too young.

“Like any injury, you’d be fearing the worst. Wear and tear caused it — I was serving my time as a carpenter and training hard. I went back to college to study quantity surveying, though.”