WATERFORD HURLING LEGEND Ken McGrath has revealed how the aftermath of open heart surgery left him feeling like he had been “hit by a bus.”
The ex-Déise star, winner of four Munster senior titles and three All Star awards, went under the knife at Dublin’s Beacon Hospital in April.
McGrath, 36, suffered a brain haemorrhage last December and extensive tests at Ardkeen Hospital revealed an abnormal valve and infection in his heart.
Seven weeks ago last Tuesday, McGrath underwent an eight-hour procedure and revealed how his brother Eoin was shocked when he came to visit in hospital.
McGrath said: “For the first two days (post operation), I can’t remember a thing.
“Lads that got the operation done before me told me that when you wake up, you feel like you’ve been hit by a bus – that’s the only way you can describe it.
“It was unreal for a few days. Eoin came up with the father on the Thursday and got some fright when he saw me.
“I was white as a ghost and had lost a lot of weight. But I knew that I was in safe hands. It was a job that had to be done and I knew that it would improve my quality of life in the long run.
“I was on the table for eight hours and there was another complication. Three or four days later, I was walking up the stairs in the Beacon – it’s unbelievable how fast you can recover.”
On June 27th, the Ken McGrath Allstar challenge will take place at Walsh Park, with a host of former intercounty stars playing in a benefit match to raise funds for a lengthy and costly rehabilitation process.
The respective team managers are current Clare boss Davy Fitzgerald and Kilkenny’s Brian Cody, who will send Munster and Leinster selections into battle.
McGrath is naturally thankful for all of the support that he has received to date and in a wonderful coincidence, the date of the match will mark the tenth anniversary of the classic 2004 Munster final against Cork, when 14-man Waterford somehow dug out a win.
McGrath smiled: “That game was massive – a brilliant game. It was the best game I ever played in – for the speed of it. Cork were in their prime and we were in our prime as well. It’s unbelievable to look back on it as well – the ten years fly.”
McGrath was well enough to attend the drawn Munster SHC quarter-final between the counties last Sunday week, and confirmed that he will return to Thurles as a spectator again for next weekend’s replay.
And he has called on Waterford supporters to flock to Semple Stadium in greater numbers – insisting that the Déise fan base was “poor” for the May 25 stalemate.
McGrath reflected: “I thought it was a very poor Waterford crowd – probably the worst Waterford crowd I’ve seen at a championship match in 15 years.
“Hopefully they’ll get behind the team now. Every team has fickle supporters at times. This might sound strange but I thought the performance was more important than the result.
“They needed to perform, express themselves and play some decent hurling. They did that and at nine points up, we were delighted. We ran out of a small bit of steam but the confidence from that will be huge.”
As he continues along the road to recovery, McGrath will soon embark on a seven-week rehabilitation programme at Waterford Regional Hospital.
For the first week I could walk five minutes and was wrecked. It’s strange, now I’m walking 30-40 minutes after seven weeks. I get tired in the afternoon and have to have a little rest, which is great!
“But I’m really starting from scratch again, to build it up. In the last two weeks, I feel a lot better and there’s colour back in my face.”
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The Ken McGrath Allstar challenge takes place on June 27 at Walsh Park. Admission: €10 (U16s free of charge). Donations can also be made to any Permanent TSB – account number 23053903, sort code: 99 06 32.
Doesn’t matter lads my kids are out the back. One of them is pretending to be Hendrick and the other Brady. That’s what it’s all about the next generation are inspired. Roll on the World Cup
Super comment Tweed. Go out to the kids & pretend to be Martin O Neil.
Never a truer word said …The only difference between us and them is we had the Italia 90 sticker album :)
Comment on the week in my eyes Tweed. Fair fecks.
And kids playing football on the streets is very important
I pretended to be David Beckham for a while, but at 59 my neighbours threatened to send for the men with the straightjackets and have be locked up if I didn’t cop on.
I grew up with Robbie Brady and remember pretending to be Duff, Keane, etc. – you never know!
Great 45 minutes. We were either tired of just not awake for the second half. Bright future though. Brady is too good of a player to have in the championship also.
As long as he doesn’t join another relegation certs
45 mins is not enough. And professionals should not have the excuse for being tired!
Great is Leicester went for him
The French lads had a 3 day extra advantage on since the last game (which is odd in any major finals in itself). I’m not using that as any excuse but to me it was a factor in the 2nd half. Griezeman showing why he’s world class didn’t help either of course.
Tired me arse. The back four Martin changed to for Italy was never seriously challenged for that game. For such an experienced manager to leave those four in place for today was a major mistake. And a touch of believing his own hype perhaps like for the Belgium game. The first 45 mins was the best I have seen an Irish team team ever – superb – but the defence wasn’t really challenged. 15 mins later – they were destroyed (and lets be honest and forget the glorious defeat stuff Keane rallied against over the years).
O’Shea would have added huge experience today. Both goals were bad bad defending. The pressure told. After 55 mins O’Neill should have taken one if the centre backs off or Ward – and sent some experience in there. All in all – a good tournament but O’Neill & Keane imho were found wanting when the going got tough
I hope I am nut being unfair but…..
No you’re right. We should’ve made changes and it was clear they were needed looking at the second goal but too late then.
Lavbeer, to be honest, whatever :-) It’s easy to have an opinion but we made it hard for a better team to beat us and sure they’re probably giving out too that it was so difficult. What-ifs, buts and maybe’s … I like this team and I like what they have done. They’ll surely with this management team have taken a lot from it and the future is optimistic.
I questioned him leaving Duffy in at O’Shea’s expense, and think he got it wrong (hindsight is wonderful and all that), but in reality, the selection was pretty much bang on
David Thomas I totally agree they are well paid to get fit, they have access to personal trainers, all the physio’s they want. All they have to do is kick a ball how hard is that. There are kids & parents in every town in Ireland doing this for NO PAY. If they are not fit & get tired after playing football for approx 90 min every few days then get another job. Give someone else a chance that can kick a ball for 90 min every few days without getting tired. Now lets all the red clicks start clicking.
I wish someone would shoot Dunphy. His latest scapegoat is Shane Duffy. He’ll be on his case for the next 2 years
And suddenly John o shea is a massive player!
Two centre backs going for the same ball is inexcusable at this level
No Jimmy but he has been in these situations much more than 2 young lads who did well bu no leadership at all. The winning goal was comical defending. i blame the manager thought who leaft a leader on the bench. He changed the team drastically for the italy game but didn’t tweak for this game. Lots of positives. The team lost to a better team but the goals were bad. But O’Neill made a rod for his own back.
O’Neill is getting off lightly here again today. He played for a 1-0 win from the 2nd minute. It was clear as day from early in the first half that we were getting tanked in midfield and defending so deep. The way he set us up to play sapped the players energy as chasing after French players with technique on the ball wore us down. We were lucky to lose 2-1 as they tore us apart again & again, especially down Wards side of the pitch. The win against was hugely emotional but it was back to reality today with a bang.
even O’Shea @ LB might have made a difference. Ward played a handful of this season – he wasn’t up to that pace. Did the last 5 goals we conceded come down that side?
Did any of ye ever play football lads? Dunphy prefers controversy, that’s how telly works. France have far more talent than we have, were much fresher, and had a ‘home’ game. And we still made them sweat for it and even threatened them at times. There are many reasons to be optimistic for world cup qualification matches.
Well done guys. Be proud
Well done lads everyone from the managers, the players and the supporters were fantastic. You all represented Ireland fabulously. We don’t make it easy to get into these championships, but when we do we definitely leave our mark. Congrats to the team.
I think we ten out of steam, pure and simple. The three day turnaround was a massive disadvantage.. Having said that, France could go on to win it, and we ran them close. I’m proud of them, even tho, right now, I’m massively disappointed.
I dont want to sound cringe or anything but I dont have words to describe how proud I am of the team, to go through all we did not just the Belgium game but all the qualifiers from that dramatic win in Georgia to the draw with Scotland we went through a lot but we came out of it good and went into the last 16 against on paper one of the top 3 teams in the tournament and gave them a good game and played some good football in the process, no shame at all with a last 16 exit and its all about getting back on the horse and be ready for Sebria in September!
Great effort by Ireland, we ran out of steam in the 2nd, sending off was fair but ultimately the last straw for an already tired team. Going forward there are great positives to be taken, if we believe, we can mix it with Europe’s best. Brady Hendrick Duffy Coleman long Randolph mc Carthy, certainly the future for Irish football is bright.
Yes, and I think young Jack Byrne could be a very interesting option for us in the near future.
Hendrick has been excellent for last few months. Derby Co need promotion or he needs out – but he did well. Why was he booked?
Did he kick the ball away perhaps?
Kicked the ball away when Pogba gave him the dead leg. Ref obviously thought he was time wasting. Harsh I thought
Stand up for the boys in green……
should’ve been our corner
The better team won on the day. We had a good 45 minutes but they just had that extra quality in the end.
The referee went in at half time and came out for the second half with a french shirt on
Sorry I can’t agree with that. Ref was fair.
Agreed
The ref was superb today
Bar that obvious corner, I agree. Good game, and I was worried about home team decisions.
We had one or two go our way too. Good ref. No complants.
Silly comment, Ref had a good day.
except for not awarding a corner just before the French scored. – I think France still would have won, but it’s nice to dream
ref let a few hard tackles go for both sides …… and he let the game flow …. and he gave a penalty against the home tea in the first minute ….a man with a balls !!!! Top ref. Wasn’t sure why he booked Hendrick though
Here here!
Let’s not stop the party until we welcome the boys in green home #COYBIG
Big improvement on 2012 euros, well done lads, head’s held high.
How about our few (!) Fans. Was that fair?
No but that didn’t loose us the game. We made some schoolboy errors particularly the second goal. No gripes France were better but we did brilliant.
Loose us the game – now that’s a schoolboy error.
Fair play it’s great that there’s always clowns available to point out a spelling error.
“We made some schoolboy errors” … “but we did brilliant” ….. ffs
In the overall context of getting out of a difficult group is what I was referring to as doing brilliantly.
Fair enough Neil. And I recognise and enjoyed that progress. But when the going got tough today …..
Very proud of them. Yes there were some mistakes but I’m not going to crucify them for it.
This is what Roy Keane talks about. No point having the best supporters in the world if the team can’t match it! But let’s clap ourselves on the back until the next party!
Exactly David, In truth our team was one of the worst at the Euros. Our defending was comically bad in 3 games, not one of our strikers had a shot on target nevermind score a goal. Our midfield was overrun by Sweden,Belgium & France in the 2nd half of each game. Our keeper had the best tournament of the lot.
Cannot fault the effort but sadly like Tardelli said we don’t have the intellectual side to our game. We played for a 1-0 win from the 2nd minute when we gat the penalty. Wasting time from that moment on was going to come back and bite us in the ass also. Our midfield was crap today, McCarthy had a good first half but again went to sleep for their first goal. The win against Italy only papered over the cracks in Irish Football. To defend so deep and invite the French on every time was madness, we gave away the ball so many times in every position. Coleman is brutal going forward in fact the whole team is!! Murphy had a good game as did Randolph but the rest were average at best. There is no player apart from Hoolihan who has a football brain.
Overall a good performance by the Irish team, but today Ireland were beaten by a French team with much more class and pace.
Great effort, some brilliant saves and they sadly just ran out of steam. Pity they couldn’t have kept the ball on the ground and in a control a bit more, there was a lot of loose play and a reversion to the primitive stuff. But they have provided us with great entertainment oer the days. The Italy game was a gem. Germans look best now
We don’t have many regularly playing premier footballers on the team apart from a few some of who were injured before the tournament. I think the team played well in the first half they went out of steam in the second half. Much better players years ago when we had a chance of winning the tournament.