“EVERY DAY IS a positive from now on,” David Burke begins.
The Galway hurling star is on the comeback trail from a cruciate ligament knee injury.
He suffered the dreaded setback at training last month and underwent surgery a little short of a fortnight ago, on 8 April.
It’s been a difficult few weeks, understandably. Disappointment, frustration, the lot.
“This is the dreaded ACL that every player doesn’t want,” 33-year-old Burke says. “Obviously a year-ending injury.
“I’ve kinda set a small target, you just have to gauge it day by day to see if I can maybe get back for the latter stages of the club championship later on in the year. It is disappointing, but it’s a mental injury more than anything. You have to set yourself small targets, instead of looking too far down the road, to win the small battles really.”
Having gone through a glittering decade-long senior inter-county career relatively unscathed — hip surgery in 2014 aside — an innocuous training ground incident did the damage on 15 March.
His fears were confirmed, any optimism or hopes for a less severe injury shredded a few days later.
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“We were just doing a tackling trill, I went for a ball with a team-mate, my right knee went to the right so all of my weight went over on to it and it went from under me,” Galway’s 2017 All-Ireland winning captain explains.
“Initially I knew I had something done alright, the pain was ferocious. It kinda subsided after a few minutes, they got me inside. I went home icing it and got the scan, and found out over Paddy’s weekend. I was lucky enough, I got in with Cathal Moran in Santry, got the surgery on 8 April over the Easter holidays. I’m a teacher so I was off and was able to get it done.”
It’s a slow process at the minute, 11 days post-surgery as we speak.
He’s back walking and ready to tackle the “small, tedious, kind of annoying” exercises once the wound heals.
“It feels good in fairness,” Burke reports. “I was on crutches there for the last few days but I’m getting to the stage now where I could probably get around and manage without them. Hopefully I’ll get back to work and get back into a routine again, which is important.”
He’s staying involved with the Galway hurlers, and is in good company in terms of players who have made strong cruciate comebacks.
The St Thomas’ midfielder has spoken about it with his cousin, Fintan Burke, Sean Linnane and Shane Cooney, and also sounded out manager Henry Shefflin quite a bit.
Similary, he’s there for any players in the set-up who need a bit of advice in his absence on the field of play, however bittersweet it is.
“It is disappointing because I definitely still feel I can help the team to perform to the best they can. I will try to go to training as much as I can with the guys, to help out as much as I can. I will be with them on matchday.
Burke playing against Shefflin back in 2012. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
“Whatever I can, whether it is helping out the kitman or watching a match, helping out the stats lads, I will give them all a bit of a hand on the day. It’s just good for my own head to stay involved, to offer some sort of support to the boys and players. They can bounce questions off me. I’m a little bit older, I can give the younger guys a bit of advice. If they take it on board, they do, if they don’t they don’t. At least I’m there helping out in some way, feeling part of it.”
Burke hails the impact of Shefflin as he adjusts to his new role on the sideline and looks ahead to Saturday’s “must-win” Leinster championship opener against Wexford in Salthill.
“He’s building it, he’s giving loads of lads opportunities. That’s one of the biggest things, he really puts faith in guys that might lack that little bit of self belief, which is huge for a younger player to see the likes of Henry Shefflin coming in, has won it all.”
And in terms of 2024, Burke won’t look too far ahead.
A return to the maroon jersey is an obvious goal, but he won’t get overly hung up on that either.
“I sat down with the surgeon and was mentioning the end of the year as a target,” he concludes. “I know it’s a bit under the timeframe that they set for a cruciate recovery injury, but club championship is something that I could possibly be back for, depending on how we get on.
“I could get setbacks as the year goes on, I’m prepared for that. You just have to see how the body is when the time comes. You could end up going back training with Galway and it just mightn’t work out, so you just have to step away. When you’re a little bit older, things get a little bit harder and recovery from injuries do tend to slow down a little bit. We’ll see. I’m not writing it out of the equation, but it’s something we’ll have to revisit later on in the year.”
Every day is a positive from here.
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Galway star David Burke on the comeback trail from 'dreaded ACL'
“EVERY DAY IS a positive from now on,” David Burke begins.
The Galway hurling star is on the comeback trail from a cruciate ligament knee injury.
He suffered the dreaded setback at training last month and underwent surgery a little short of a fortnight ago, on 8 April.
It’s been a difficult few weeks, understandably. Disappointment, frustration, the lot.
“This is the dreaded ACL that every player doesn’t want,” 33-year-old Burke says. “Obviously a year-ending injury.
“I’ve kinda set a small target, you just have to gauge it day by day to see if I can maybe get back for the latter stages of the club championship later on in the year. It is disappointing, but it’s a mental injury more than anything. You have to set yourself small targets, instead of looking too far down the road, to win the small battles really.”
Having gone through a glittering decade-long senior inter-county career relatively unscathed — hip surgery in 2014 aside — an innocuous training ground incident did the damage on 15 March.
His fears were confirmed, any optimism or hopes for a less severe injury shredded a few days later.
“We were just doing a tackling trill, I went for a ball with a team-mate, my right knee went to the right so all of my weight went over on to it and it went from under me,” Galway’s 2017 All-Ireland winning captain explains.
“Initially I knew I had something done alright, the pain was ferocious. It kinda subsided after a few minutes, they got me inside. I went home icing it and got the scan, and found out over Paddy’s weekend. I was lucky enough, I got in with Cathal Moran in Santry, got the surgery on 8 April over the Easter holidays. I’m a teacher so I was off and was able to get it done.”
It’s a slow process at the minute, 11 days post-surgery as we speak.
He’s back walking and ready to tackle the “small, tedious, kind of annoying” exercises once the wound heals.
“It feels good in fairness,” Burke reports. “I was on crutches there for the last few days but I’m getting to the stage now where I could probably get around and manage without them. Hopefully I’ll get back to work and get back into a routine again, which is important.”
He’s staying involved with the Galway hurlers, and is in good company in terms of players who have made strong cruciate comebacks.
The St Thomas’ midfielder has spoken about it with his cousin, Fintan Burke, Sean Linnane and Shane Cooney, and also sounded out manager Henry Shefflin quite a bit.
Similary, he’s there for any players in the set-up who need a bit of advice in his absence on the field of play, however bittersweet it is.
“It is disappointing because I definitely still feel I can help the team to perform to the best they can. I will try to go to training as much as I can with the guys, to help out as much as I can. I will be with them on matchday.
“Whatever I can, whether it is helping out the kitman or watching a match, helping out the stats lads, I will give them all a bit of a hand on the day. It’s just good for my own head to stay involved, to offer some sort of support to the boys and players. They can bounce questions off me. I’m a little bit older, I can give the younger guys a bit of advice. If they take it on board, they do, if they don’t they don’t. At least I’m there helping out in some way, feeling part of it.”
Burke hails the impact of Shefflin as he adjusts to his new role on the sideline and looks ahead to Saturday’s “must-win” Leinster championship opener against Wexford in Salthill.
“He’s building it, he’s giving loads of lads opportunities. That’s one of the biggest things, he really puts faith in guys that might lack that little bit of self belief, which is huge for a younger player to see the likes of Henry Shefflin coming in, has won it all.”
And in terms of 2024, Burke won’t look too far ahead.
A return to the maroon jersey is an obvious goal, but he won’t get overly hung up on that either.
“I sat down with the surgeon and was mentioning the end of the year as a target,” he concludes. “I know it’s a bit under the timeframe that they set for a cruciate recovery injury, but club championship is something that I could possibly be back for, depending on how we get on.
“I could get setbacks as the year goes on, I’m prepared for that. You just have to see how the body is when the time comes. You could end up going back training with Galway and it just mightn’t work out, so you just have to step away. When you’re a little bit older, things get a little bit harder and recovery from injuries do tend to slow down a little bit. We’ll see. I’m not writing it out of the equation, but it’s something we’ll have to revisit later on in the year.”
Every day is a positive from here.
Get instant updates on the Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues on The42 app. Brought to you by Allianz Insurance, proud sponsors of the Allianz Leagues for over 30 years.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
David Burke Galway Interview