Source: Irish Examiner

Seamus Kennedy recalls feeling "savage pain for a minute, minute-and-a-half" after going down injured during Tipperary's Allianz Hurling League game against Limerick in early March. 

The two-time All-Ireland winner suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate knee ligament, an injury which will keep him out of action for 2024. He will undergo surgery on April 24th.

"I just went to change direction about 10 minutes into the second half and unfortunately fell in a heap with pain," Kennedy told the BBC's The GAA Social podcast.

"A good few of the lads with Tipp who have done the cruciate asked me if I heard the pop - I hadn't. I was in such a blur, maybe I was oblivious to it."

Tipperary physio Paddy O'Brien and team doctor Brendan Murphy tested Kennedy's knee after the game. Both were worried about its condition.

"It's strange," said Kennedy, "I was able to walk off the field and walked into the car that evening. All day Sunday, you're walking around and testing it. All day Monday, you're saying, 'Jesus, I have no pain here'."

Kennedy travelled on his own to Santry Sports Clinic for a scan on the Tuesday following the game.

"I was told quickly that surgery was required," he said.

"The season just changes so quickly for me now. Split second, the ball was coming to me, somebody got a touch, I've got to change to change direction and that's it, lights out for 2024 for me.

"The Sunday, Monday, Tuesday were the toughest because one minute you could be thinking, 'Hopefully, I'll just look like an eejit coming off the field and everything will be grand in a few weeks'. Obviously, you're thinking that worst case scenario, my 2024 is done.

"I was probably very hard to be around and people close to me were on eggshells. People were asking how you are and you don't know."

Kennedy said the situation was also tough on his parents and girlfriend. All three of them were at the game. They regularly field questions on his condition. "Orla works in the family pub at the weekends or whenever she's needed," said Kennedy. "She had every Tom, Dick and Harry when they're ordering their pint asking her [about me]."

Kennedy still attends Tipperary gym sessions on Monday nights. That he was injured really hit home when he heard there was an in-house 15v15 game scheduled. Championship was getting close. 

For inspiration in his recovery, the Clonmel Commercials man doesn't have to look far. Former Tipperary captain Brendan Maher injured his ACL in 2018 but returned to win an All-Ireland and All-Star the following year. Barry Heffernan and Craig Morgan have also come back from the injury.  

The tightly packed inter-county schedule is being blamed for the quantity of injuries suffered by many football and hurling panels. Kennedy, however, does not believe his injury is related to the load put on him by training and games.

His club season with Clonmel Commericals ended in late November. He travelled to Vietnam after Christmas and didn't begin training with Tipperary until mid-January.

"Angelo, our S&C coach, was excellent when I came back," he said.

"It wasn't like I was straight into the heavy running. I was eased in. It wasn't until three weeks in that I did the full running session. 

"I didn't play the first league game. I played the Galway game, played the Westmeath game. 

"The game before the Limerick game, I was lucky enough that Liam (Cahill) made me captain for the day. Then the following Saturday, you go from a serious high to a serious low.

"I don't think it was down to the load. I had the guts of six weeks off, was monitored coming into training.

"It's disappointing. I've been very lucky with injuries until now. It's just something I'll have to get through. 

"I'm probably in the easier part of it now in that there's a lot I can do in the gym, prehab, on the bike, upperbody. I'm able to do something everyday. I'm not sitting at home on the couch in pain. 

"After April 24th, I imagine, it'll be the tougher part of the recovery."