Seamus Kennedy inspired by Brendan Maher as Tipp ACL victim faces long road back to fitness

The 30-year-old defender’s ambitions for the season were cruelly cut short on March 9 when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament playing against Limerick in the Allianz League.

After the initial surge of “savage pain for a minute, minute and a half”, Kennedy was able to walk off the field in Páirc Uí Chaoimh that Saturday evening.

And even though initial post-match tests prompted concern among Tipp’s medical team, it was only when he attended the Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry that scans confirmed the worst: a torn ACL that rules him out for the remainder of the year.

Kennedy has now spoken of his determination to bounce back. “I just have to look at Brendan Maher for Tipp,” he told BBC’s The GAA Social podcast.

“He (tore) his cruciate against Clare in the championship in 2018 and the following year he was incredible for us, he won an All-Star and his club got to an All-Ireland club final.

“Barry Heffernan and Craig Morgan are back playing well with Tipp at the minute, ‘Bonner’ Maher is still going with Tipp so there’s loads of people.

“I’ve loads of support, in fairness, and I suppose that’s one thing I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been blown away by the support, to be honest, and how good people actually are.”

The two-time All-Ireland SHC medallist – from 2016 and ’19 – relived the moment that ended his season in conversation with Thomas Niblock and Oisín McConville.

“I just went to change direction about 10 minutes into the second half and unfortunately fell in a heap with pain,” Kennedy recalled.

“The season just changes so quickly for me now. Split second, the ball was coming to me, and somebody gets a touch and I go to change direction and that’s it, lights out now for 2024.”

The dual player from Clonmel expanded: “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.

“It’s strange, 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.’”

However, as soon as he went to Santry on the Tuesday evening, “I was told fairly quickly that surgery was required. So, a tough journey home from Santry alright.”

Kennedy added: “The Sunday, Monday, Tuesday were the toughest because one minute you could be thinking, ‘God, hopefully I’ll just look like an eejit coming off the field and that I’ll be grand in a few weeks.’ But then obviously you’re saying, ‘God, worst case scenario this is my 2024 probably done’ – and everything in between.

“I was probably very hard to be around and people close to me were on eggshells. People were asking you how you are … I didn’t know and I found that hard.”

But while the diagnosis was “very tough”, it has also brought clarity for Kennedy and a belief that he will successfully come through surgery and the long bout of rehabilitation that follows.