Kinlough Ko’d by the county’s cruciate curse

St Peter’s, Dunboyne’s Jack Kinlough has become the latest Meath GAA star to be afflicted with the cruciate ligament injury curse which has blighted the county in the recent past. The talented youngster regrettably following in the unwanted footsteps of Aoife Minogue, Jordan Morris, minor player Luke Kenny and former Ladies team captain Maire O’Shaughnessy in being struck down with the season ending setback.

While it’s not nice for any player or the teams they are associated with, it’s particularly cruel on Kinlough who not only grew in confidence and status within the team throughout the National League campaign, but had also made an eye-catching start to his Championship debut last week against Carlow where he had already clipped over two of the Royal County’s first three points.

Now, obviously, anybody connected to or with an interest in Meath GAA will have been gutted by Jack’s injury, and for the young lad himself in particular. However, there is one thing I do want to mention. Throughout social media and elsewhere online there have been numerous posts having a cut at the Meath medical team over the fact that Jack came back on before going down again.

I think such criticism is unfair. I’ve no shtick on behalf of the medics before anyone goes that road. For one thing, manager Robbie Brennan could be seen pleading with him not to go back in (Cillian O’Sullivan was at the ready to deputise immediately), and for another, Jack is my own clubman. So naturally, his injury is of greater concern and a bigger loss to us than anybody else.

But there’s another side to this, isn’t there always? Spare a thought for the gasun himself. You’re 20 minutes into your senior championship debut, you’ve kicked two points and the world is oyster. Then, out of nowhere and with nobody near you, something gives and you crumple to the ground. The medics and the manager try desperately to persuade you not to chance it. But when you look through the lens you see something differently.

You try to convince yourself you can run it off. You’re flying and you believe that if you go off, you’ll never get back into the team again. Anybody that says they wouldn’t do likewise if they were in the same position is either a spoofer or their heart’s not in it.

All we can do is wish all our walking wounded well.