Gavin Cooney

FOOTBALL HAS ALWAYS been callously indifferent to the passions it stirs. 

The 2021 FAI Cup final was Keith Buckley’s initial swansong with Bohemians; the captain’s final game before heading off on his travels. It was a bitter end, with Bohs beaten by Pat’s on penalties and denied an extra-time victory by a clearance that was either on or behind the goal-line, depending on who you ask. 

Buckley, however, returned to the club ahead of the 2023 season, saying he wanted to help the club “reach for the stars.”

Those stars seemed to have aligned by delivering another Cup final appearance for Bohs, and another against Pat’s.

But Buckley’s dreams of glorious atonement were destroyed less than a month before the final and in Bohs penultimate home game of the season against, you guessed it, St Pat’s. 

Buckley snapped into a standard challenge in midfield with Mark Doyle and then everything changed. 

“I saw the ball and then tried to hop up”, says Buckley. “I knew, ‘Ah yeah, there’s something here.’ But in my mind I was thinking, ‘I’ll be okay for the final.’ But the next day I had the scan and I had a little bit of time to myself thinking, ‘fuck sake, how did that happen?’” 

Keith Buckley suffers his knee injury against Pat's. Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO

Buckley tore his Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and also ripped his Medial Cruciate Ligament (MCL) off its bone. He has had one surgery to repair his MCL and will have another to repair his ACL before Christmas. 

“I had about an hour in the hospital and that was it”, replies Buckley when asked if it has taken him long to come to terms with the injury. “Nothing you can do. Three other limbs working. I’m healthy, I’m happy, what can you do? Sit around moping? It would be worse. You got to keep the mind healthy and happy and prepare properly.”

Buckley has not put a timeline on his return but insists it won’t be rushed. 

“Ten years ago I’d probably be pushing to be back by the summer”, he says. “But you sit down, look at all the analysis and see how rare it is. There is no chance of that. You could end your career by coming back too soon.” 

Buckley’s left knee is now in a heavy brace, and he is waiting for the swelling to subside before the second surgery. He has kept active by doing some upper body work in the gym, and has been blown away by the level of support he’s received across the League of Ireland since the injury. 

“Everyone wants to help each other”, he says. “I was getting phonecalls, you’d think I was on the way out! I’m thinking, ‘What’s going on?’ It goes to show the support people have, most managers around the league rang me or texted me.” 

Tom Grivosti of St Pat’s was also in touch, having suffered an ACL injury of his own in May of this year. The PFAI, meanwhile, have offered Buckley the services of sports psychologist Mark Larkin, with whom another Pat’s player, Joe Redmond, has worked. The players’ union are also helping Buckley change the scenery of his rehab, and he plans to do a section of it at St George’s Park in England and, later, to do some warm weather training in Portugal. 

“I was chatting to a few people and when you’re constantly seeing players going out to train for six or seven months and you’re there on your own, it can be hard after six months or so”, says Buckley. “Try and break it up like that.”

Also in touch with support has been Buckley’s cousin Conor McGregor, who has recovered from a serious knee of his own: McGregor tore his ACL in his 2013 victory over Max Holloway. 

“I have only be re-watching his documentary”, says Buckley. “I do look at him sometimes to get a bit of motivation. I have been chatting to him because obviously he done it. As he said, it is a journey now, a process for your mind. You will find out a lot more mentally about yourself that you never did before and how the body moves in different ways when you come back. He has been a help in that way.”

Buckley’s mental strength will be tested across Cup final week, but he says he still has a role to perform as club captain. 

“Devastating that I can’t be there but I can’t show any devastation when I am up at training every day”, says Buckley. “I still have a job to do, and a role as a captain to be there, but I am sure James [Talbot] and Ali Coote, who were there last time, still have that bit between their teeth to get a little bit of revenge.

“Even if I am not playing I am still the same person. Obviously I can’t be out training on the pitch but I am there around the place. When the lads come in we have lunch together, have a chat, and I am always there to give the young lads advice. I am experienced enough now. I have seen these nights. The last final in the Aviva wasn’t good. But if they need any advice they know I am here.”

Buckley will be around the squad at the Aviva on Sunday afternoon, where his nerves will fray along with the rest of the Bohemians’ supporters. 

“The crutches may go through a window!”