Is there anything more frustrating than those ol’ hamstrings?
Jack McCarron has been through the ringer when it comes to injuries but there’s only one that sticks out like a sore hamstring above the rest.
The Monaghan forward and his effortless talent has shot into households the country over with his national league form this season and a lot of people have been asking where the hell he’s been hiding.
The Farney faithful would tell you that this deadly attacker has been no secret around their county but a series of unfortunate injuries have held him back.
In fact, in the last four years, McCarron has battled through four serious injuries in four different parts of his body. It was a hell of a climb just to get the opportunity to start showing people what he’s about in the first place.
From a shoulder injury in 2012 to doing his cruciate in a bloody club match when they had already been relegated in 2014, onto his hamstrings the next year and then a bad ankle tear last season, McCarron has faced adversity like no other.
2013 was the only time he had injury free but then he was young and trying to get onto a Monaghan side that would go on to conquer the province.
He stuck around though, Malachy O’Rourke kept him on board and he stayed at training, did his physio with the county, helped out in whatever way he could and now he’s kicking 1-9 against Dublin.
Through it all – through cruciate injuries and broken legs and ruined joints – it was the hamstring injuries that McCarron struggled with the most.
“It’s definitely very hard to stay positive especially when you think you’re close to coming back,” the Currin club man was on the most recent GAA Hour.
“The hamstring injuries were the toughest ones because you thought you were just out for four or five week periods and, whenever you were getting close to getting back, it would just tear again and you’d be back to square one.
“When you know you’re going to be out for a certain amount of time, you kind of just put that aside but with the hamstring it was probably the most difficult because you just couldn’t get it right at all. It’s a very hard injury to get right. You always thought you were going to get back playing sooner but then there’d always be another setback.”
And there are guys in every club who get shit over their hamstrings. Spare them a thought because Jack McCarron knows what it’s like.
Listen to his full interview below (from 23:30).
