decent article

Rockyman7

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/what-ails-irish-athletics-a-tale-from-stillwater-oklahoma-1.3005716#.WMLkcu0yHyg.facebook

raiders11

Only about a week after winning in Sligo, he first noticed a pain under his right foot. He’d never been injured in his life, and the more he tried to run on it the worse it got. Athletics Ireland arranged for an MRI scan, in Dublin, and he was originally diagnosed with an inflamed tendon. He followed that path of recovery, but to no effect; he then prioritised his Leaving Cert, while becoming increasingly frustrated by the level of attention from Athletics Ireland.
Eventually, in consultation with his coach in Ennis, Pat Hogan, he decided to go outside the ‘system’, set up an appointment at the Sports Surgery Clinic, in Santry, where he was diagnosed with a stress fracture, a tiny crack at the side of the foot.
He underwent surgery on December 18th, and this weekend is due to have his first test run since, on the anti-gravity treadmill known as the AlterG.
He’d deferred his entry to Oklahoma State until January, then headed away – feeling as if he’s slipped through those still conspicuous cracks in the Irish athletics system.
“If anything, it’s just reaffirmed my decision to come to America,” Mulcaire told me from Stillwater this week. “I’d be very disappointed with the Irish system, I didn’t get the sense anyone really cared. It’s not the facilities, it’s the structures. The whole thing needs to be restructured. It’s too top-heavy. It needs to be built from coaches up. It’s too focused on the officials at the top, on the crazy salaries, and you don’t even meet them.
“I’d be worried more for the younger juniors, coming through. It’s not just me. How many Irish juniors actually go on to achieve something? It’s so easy to get lost in Ireland. You look at the college system, what the kids typically do in college. It’s incredibly difficult if you’re not surrounded by like-minded people. Especially when you’re injured. Mentally, I don’t know if you’d get through it at all. The incentive is not there to stay in the sport.”

ThebitterLemon

Do you need surgery for a stress fracture, how does it help, I thought time and rest was what was required to recover?


TbL