Kerry great Colm Cooper has admitted for the first time he was "pretty close" to quitting football because of his knee injury.
The Kingdom icon turned the corner on 14 months of injury heartache when he appeared as a sub against Tyrone on Sunday.
He came on after 62 minutes in Omagh and set up Kieran Donaghy for the equaliser in a crucial Allianz Football League draw.
But in a revealing mini documentary shot by AIB, the Gooch conceded his injuries were so severe he would have had to quit the game if it was 20 years ago.
The eight-time All Star suffered cruciate knee ligament damage and a fractured knee cap during an AIB All-Ireland club semi-final tie in February 2014.
“I never thought anything about it being the end,” said Cooper. “But when he listed out the number of injuries, it wasn’t so far away from it I don’t think. It was pretty close. I think if that injury happened 20 years ago, I would have to retire.”
The 31-year-old famously returned to Kerry’s matchday squad for the All-Ireland semi-final replay win over Mayo last August. And he forged a private pact with his surgeon to play for 10 minutes in the final.
He wore number 28 for the final and was ready to go if called upon as Kerry defeated Donegal by three points.
“Straight away by the time I get to the dressing-room (after beating Mayo), the focus is on,” said Cooper. “It’s, ‘hang on now, there’s an All-Ireland final here. We’ve about four weeks. Is there any chance?’ I got to the surgeon. He took a look at the knee again. He said, ‘I knew it was good but it’s actually better than what I thought. Go for it’.
“Yeah, there was kind of a little bit of an agreement that, okay, there might be 10 minutes here in the final but that’s it for the year.”
Cooper’s comeback was ultimately delayed by well over six months until last weekend. The four-time All-Ireland medallist admitted that his rate of improvement slowed down after the win over Donegal.
“Since September to January, the rate of improvement slowed compared to what it was in July and August,” he said. “For those couple of months, I was doing my work but (was) a little bit lost at the same time.
“In a way, it was a bad time for Kerry to finish because I was on the crest of a wave and I perform better in a team environment. If I had another couple of months of that, the progress probably would have went through the roof again.”
The ‘Gooch’ admitted that the well wishes of fans was a great lift during his lowest times. One card he received from a child read: ‘To Colm, I hope you get better soon. I hope your leg gets better soon. I love you. Love from Sarah’.
“There was lots of letters of goodwill from people all over,” recalled Cooper. “The thing that blew me away was the people saying, ‘I know I’m from Dublin or Galway but get back, get back, we need to see you back on the field’. Just reminding you of the good days and that they’ll come back as well.
“It was incredible. I couldn’t really get over that. Little kids writing me cards and that, pictures of fellas with red hair and sore knees and plasters on their knees and things, which was quite funny. It gave me a lift. A lot of it was good humour which was kind of what I needed at the time.”
