Colm Spillane puts his back into final Castlelyons push

For the first time in what feels like forever, Spillane can report that the body is in good health.

Sat, 14 Oct, 2023 - 08:00

Eoghan Cormican

For the first time in what feels like forever, Colm Spillane can report that the back and the body are good.

There have been no back spasms of late. No need to haul himself up onto a treatment table. No need to stretch himself out on the broad of his back at home in an attempt to try and find a smidgen of relief from the pain.

There’s nothing new in Castlelyons being part of the Cork Premier Intermediate hurling final. This is, after all, their third final appearance in four seasons. But what’s absolutely new for Spillane is going into the final in as rude a health as he can hope for.

Speaking to younger brother Anthony before the club’s 2021 final defeat, he outlined the hell Colm had gone through after his injury-enforced departure from their opening championship game against Watergrasshill that season.

“He came off after 15 minutes and to be honest, I didn't think he'd be playing again,” Anthony said at the time.

“He was on the flat of his back for around two weeks. He couldn't work, couldn't go to school. He was in a bad way. We got a fair fright with it.”

At the end of that 2021 season, Colm, then 28, called time on his inter-county career. His final year in red had seen him make only one championship appearance, that an injury-time cameo off the bench in the quarter-final win over Dublin.

His inability to get the body right had robbed him of the ability to contend for gametime. Realism fed premature retirement.

“Very difficult to step away, but at the time I was after having two surgeries on my back. My back was feeling so bad in 2021 that at the end of the year it was almost a relief that I didn't have to try and get back to the required level of inter-county fitness when I knew I wasn’t anywhere near right. I was ready to stop,” Colm explained.

“It is hard sometimes going to matches when you feel you could still be there. I am only just gone 30. You look at someone like Patrick Horgan who at 35 is still flying. But I’m happy with the club and the body is feeling as good as it has in around four years.”

Holding Cork membership afforded the body very little time to switch off and recover. The calendar dictated that you report for duty in December and the workload ratcheted up from there. Nowadays, there is great comfort for Spillane and his back at not having to be lifting until July.

To fight off stiffness and soreness, he simply keeps moving. Never sits down or stands still for too long at a time.

“It is really a lifestyle thing. I am constantly getting up and walking around. Mobility, mobility, mobility. Even in the gym now, I would never attempt to lift what you might call heavy weights or weights I was lifting before.”

It’s working. He’s not missed a training session in around five months. He’s not enjoyed such uninterruption since 2020. Fingers crossed for continued good health. Fingers crossed the fingers also stay out of trouble this weekend.

As if his back issues of recent years weren’t enough, Spillane lasted but a few minutes of the 2020 county final defeat to Blarney when his baby finger “became completely detached” in a freak injury.

“The bone was pulling out and it was just hanging on by a piece of skin. Having come back from all the injuries I’d come back from, to then have that happen was pure misfortune.”

That’s all now behind him. In front of him is Kilworth and a Senior ticket denied to him and his teammates in 2013, 20, and 21.

“We just want to get over the line,” says the provider of 1-1 from centre-forward during Castlelyons' semi-final revenge mission against Castlemartyr.

“Last year, we probably never got going fully. Castlemartyr beat us in the semi-final and deservedly so. A lot of us are on the road for a long time. A good few of us played the county final in 2013. We were beaten in that too. We are hoping we can go one step further.”