*Emmet McMahon. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLARE STAR Emmet McMahon is nearing a return to action.
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Saturday’s Munster semi-final against All-Ireland champions Kerry will come too soon for Emmet but he is expected to play a part beyond the provincial campaign whether Clare are lining out in the All-Ireland SFC or the Tailteann Cup.
McMahon has been out of the game since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in a challenge game for Kildysart last July which kept him out of the entire Clare SFC.
He has remained unavailable for selection for the entirety of Paul Madden’s debut season in charge of Clare but remains an ever-present member of the panel and has not missed a single competitive match this season as proof of his commitment to the county cause. His ability to kick two pointers, land crucial scores and compete in the air has been missed but he will hopefully see some action for what would be his seventh inter-county championship campaign.
On top of this, the secondary school teacher at St Caimin’s Community School has got involved with the backroom team of the Clare minor footballers as a performance coach.
Madden told The Clare Echo that McMahon is making steady progress but still has a bit to go with his recovery. “He has to get his sign-off which I think is the end of the month with Santry to say he has hit all of his markers. The thing that people don’t realise with injuries at this level, you could be coming back from a long-term injury and then you’re doing work to get to that point, you could be coming off an eight or ten week hamstring injury, when you get the sign off to say your injury is healed, you then have to return to play process before you can play at inter-county level in a championship game so you might be healed but you haven’t enough done to play.
“With somebody coming back from a cruciate, the biggest challenge is not the knee because the structure of the knee will be sound and the surgery would have been top class, the sign off will say it is perfectly functioning but your body isn’t used to the load of inter-county training so muscular injuries are common, you have to manage the process. We’d love to have Emmet McMahon playing every game, he is a top class inter-county footballer and a brilliant guy, we’ll be delighted to have him back but we will have to manage that process whenever it is,” he added.
