Armagh goalkeeper averted All-Ireland final disaster thanks to Kieran McGeeney’s 'wise words'
Armagh All-Ireland winning goalkeeper, Blaine Hughes has spoken about the serious knee injury he sustained in the warm-up before the Sam Maguire decider against Galway.
Hughes collided with Joe McElroy and although he didn’t know it at the time, he had damaged the medial ligament in his right knee, an injury he is still rehabbing.
When he tried to kick across his body he felt “excrutiating pain” and it was doubtful if he was going to start the encounter with Galway.
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Hughes, speaking to Shaun Casey on the Sideline Eye podcast, opened up on how his All-Ireland final dream almost turned into a nightmare.
And how he tried to keep the injury hidden from the Galway camp. After one painful kickout, Hughes - playing in the biggest game of his life - switched over to his weaker left leg to kick the ball out.
“The goalkeepers were over minding their own business as we normally do in the warm-up,” said the Carrickcruppen man.
“I think there was a shooting kicking drill Conleith (Gilligan) put in. I sort of half blame Ciaran O’Hanlon as well, a bad kick pass to Joe.
“But I was standing, hitting kickouts, and then the ball came in close to me. Joe went to gather it but he fell over a kit bag clashing into me and I ended up doing high Grade 2 MCL in the warm-up.
“Once I hit the deck, I knew in myself that something wasn’t right. The pain going through my knee and then when I went to stand up I just didn’t feel like I had any stability at all.
“From that I was hit or miss whether I’d play. We went to do the rest of the warm-up.”
Hughes had to call off his warm-up as he couldn’t push off his right leg to make a save, hit a kick out off his right or foot pass off his right out of his hands.
“So from that there I was walking around the parade the whole time thinking I wasn’t going to play,” he continued.
“We came off the Hill after the parade and then I got strapped up for the first half.
“I was just in my head, ‘Get me into half time so I can get properly seen too.’ It all just happened so quickly. It was just absolutely chaos going on in the warm-up.”
Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney and Hughes made the final call that he would play, with last year’s number one, Ethan Rafferty waiting in the wings.
“I was in my head going, ‘I don’t know if I am fit to play. I really didn’t know.’
“I sort of wanted to give it a go because obviously it was an All-Ireland final. I was in my head going, ‘I want to play for at least 10 minutes and see how I feel within the game.’
“Then see what was what and can I take it from there. Maybe the start, the whistle, the adrenalin might have got me through. That’s what I was thinking, even though in the warm up I was barely fit to walk.
“Lucky enough, wise words from Geezer I suppose. He goes to me, ‘How are you doing?’
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“I goes, ‘Not so good.’ “He said, ‘No, you are great.’ And slapped me on the back and said ‘Get into that parade there.’
“From there then I was good to go. Lucky enough I got through. I was fairly inactive in the first half, thank god, thanks to the defenders and everyone else.
“I think I hit the first kick out to Aaron McKay and it went through his legs. I underhit it. It was more so through the pain. I sort of half pulled out of the kickout.
“He gave me a mouthful after I hit a bad kickout to him. After that I was pointing towards my right hand side telling boys to go there.
“I think I used my left foot the whole way through the first half, just hitting short kickouts off my left, thank god.”
As far as Hughes is aware, Galway were in the dark over his injury: “In my head I was going I’ll not get strapped up in the parade. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.
“Once we broke out I got strapped and then Amhran na Bhfiann came on and I was looking at the flags.
“I was going, these (Galway) boys are behind me, looking at me strapped up so they will come hunting for me in the first half. Lucky enough they stepped off and played like a half press, only three in the first line. Lucky enough, we managed to get shorts away.”
In the last few minutes, Hughes came under pressure from Galway and had to kick long, but he couldn’t kick across himself with his right foot, so could only go one way.
“I was calling overload to my right hand side, Hogan side, and boys were running the opposite way,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god.’
“Lucky enough (Jason) Duffy made himself free. It was just a miss hit kickout and I think (Conor) Gleeson punched it over the top.
“I was looking for Hogan side the whole time because my MCL is on the inside of my knee. Everything I kicked across myself to hit with the inside of my foot was excruciating pain. I was trying to kick to my right hand side.”
****Blaine Hughes was speaking to ‘The Sideline Eye’ podcast.
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