Paul Geaney commits to Kerry but will take 'big break'

Geaney, likely to be Kerry captain in 2026, will probably return for the Munster SFC game against against Clare in April after eight months of injury troubles

Dingle's Paul Geaney plans to "get the body right" following this weekend's All-Ireland Club SFC final against St Brigid's. Pic: ©INPHO/James Lawlor

It’s fair to say that Dingle talisman and probable incoming Kerry captain Paul Geaney will not see very much league action for Jack O’Connor this year.

His most likely return will be against Clare in the Munster Championship in April after eight months of bad luck, although Geaney revealed that he has actually been very lucky overall with injuries during his decade-plus playing career with Kerry.

“I’ve been lucky for most of my career not to get injuries during championship,” he said.

“The Cork game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh was the first championship game I missed for Kerry nearly between my debut and say 2014 and 2020.

“That was a nice stretch without missing a championship game. And then I missed one more since and last year I ended up missing five on the trot but I’ve been lucky most of my career and in fairness I was able to contribute some bit to the team in the last while so it could have been worse.” 

Geaney reckons it all went wrong against Cork and he now has an injury that cannot get any worse, with all his setbacks coming from the same issue.

“It was the one injury that was after Kerry. I broke my scapula against Cork and then 10 days later I came down from a thing in Dublin that we had to do before the championship, a launch basically.

“I was running and I hurt my calf that evening and that kept me out.

“But in Kerry, we had so many injuries at the time and we were under pressure, and we had Cavan (in a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final) two days after I’d done the injury.

“The following week then we’d obviously Armagh and we probably just needed some experienced fellas just in case.

“I had about 15 minutes in the body, which was perfect, 15 minutes and then after that I was probably going to get more injured or whatever.

“I decided that I’d give it a go and if we came into a situation where we were down, whatever it was, a couple of points maybe and we needed a goal that I might be going on.” 

Geaney believes he should have stopped after Cavan and he would have made the All-Ireland.

“The weeks kind of rolled on and I was still trying to train rather than recover.

“In hindsight if I stopped and recovered, I would have made an All-Ireland final, no problem.

“But it was the fact that I was going week on week and trying to make the Tyrone game (All-Ireland quarter-final) again because the pressure was still on.

“If you put yourself in that situation before the Tyrone game, there’s still pressure on, backs to the wall, got a few bodies back but still, only had the flash of whatever we had against Armagh and Seánie’s performance obviously.

“Obviously we were always in control against Tyrone, and I was never coming on but then you’re in an All-Ireland final so you’re going to give it everything to try and be involved there.

“But it just didn’t give me a chance to recover. So, after that I had to take a month pretty much to get it right and about three weeks in we lost to Kenmare the second week.

“It was smooth sailing really until the county semi-final and I tore a bit of hamstring in the first play after half-time so that was week on week; the county championship, that was tough, I just had to play through that one really.

“Then I just had a niggle in the calf in the second half against Finbarr’s and again that’s what kind of helped me out.

“I didn’t do a whole lot since the Finbarr’s game. I was trying to do what I did after Kerry to give it as much of a chance.

“I didn’t know where I was, but we know where I am now so it’s good.” 

So having said all that, Geaney intends to return to Kerry but not straight away after next Sunday.

“I’m going to be taking a rest anyway” he revealed. “It’s not an issue. Anything I pick up in the meantime or in the game itself is not an issue.

“It’s going to be a big break afterwards. I’m going to get the body right. It’ll be a case of take a rest and then start pre-season then.

“I’ll be starting a block of pre-season again after probably a two or three-week rest or a month rest and then I’ll be starting from scratch.

“That’s usually about six weeks. I mean, it depends on what you have. After the four weeks as well. And obviously things can change there with Kerry. But I’d say the plan is I’m going back,” concluded Geaney.

That will be music to Jack O’Connor’s ears.