DARRAN O’SULLIVAN IS on the cusp of a comeback — but Kerry’s star forward will need more surgery on his troublesome hips.
O’Sullivan hasn’t played since the All-Ireland semi-final defeat against Dublin last year.
But now he’s back in training following his long injury layoff and on the bench for tomorrow’s trip to Castlebar as Kerry try to get their league campaign up and running at the third attempt.
It was widely reported that O’Sullivan had a double hip operation to right the problem that plagued him last season but he revealed that he’s only halfway there.
“At the moment I’m feeling good and hopefully that will continue, but I still have to get one more hip done,” he told TheScore.ie.
“The surgeon over in Coventry thought that if I got both of them done I’d end up missing half the season.
“I asked him about it and he said to try and get through most of this season on the left hip because the right hip is a lot worse.
“I only got the one done and I’m trying to get that right now.”
It seems inevitable that he will have to go back under the knife at some stage but if things go according to plan, he hopes to kick that can down the road for a bit.
“It all depends how the body is feeling at the end of the season.
[The surgeon] said just wait and see and you’ll know yourself how it’s doing, and you might be able to get another season out of it.
O’Sullivan has kept up appearances around the panel during his recovery as well as factoring in his own physio sessions with Ciaran Ó Sé, son of Kerry great Jack.
He credits Ó Sé with his speedy return to fitness which should see him back in Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s plans before the end of the league campaign.
“I think Eamonn is kind of getting sick of me asking him when can I come back but the Kerry management have been very good.
“They haven’t put me under any pressure to come back and neither is Eamonn. I’m doing all I can though.”
Part of the reason he’s so anxious to spend time around the panel is because he knows the value an experienced campaigner like himself can bring. This will be his 10th senior season at inter-county level, marking him out as an old hand at the tender age of 27.
After opening the league with back-to-back defeats for a second season under Fitzmaurice, the bad news kept coming for Kerry when captain Colm Cooper was ruled out for the season.
“If you look at the space of four months, you have Tomas Ó Sé, Eoin Brosnan, Paul Galvin all retired and then the Gooch got that injury.
“They are all as important as the other but the Gooch, that would be a blow to any team. He was in such good form for Crokes. I’m disappointed for him and I know how disappointed he is.
We live 30 seconds away from each other so I was there the day it happened. He was very disappointed and it is what it is, but him being captain he was looking forward to the year.
“He’s ok. He is putting on a brave face, already talking about rehab, and that’s a good sign. As they say you can’t put a good man down.
“I suppose Eamonn will want Colm around the place, as all the players would, but sometimes it’s hard to be around when you are injured.
“He’ll be wanted around the summer because that’s the hardest time, when the big championship games are coming.”
