Tom Parsons has somebody else’s ligaments in his knee

It would have been very easy for Tom Parsons to have accepted his horrid fate.

It would have been very easy for Tom Parsons to have called it a day. He's been a Mayo player ten years now in a young man's game. He's 30 now. He was 30 when he suffered the nightmare injury that would have nudged even the most spirited of players towards the point of no return. Because it was four months ago when the Charlestown man tore three of his four knee ligaments, tore his calf, his hamstring and dislocated his knee in one misstep in the Connacht semi-final against Galway. The Gods of Gaelic football weren't on his side that day but Tom Parsons isn't one for feeling sorry for himself. Even in his darkest days, he always saw the light at the end of the tunnel. He always saw a way back even if it would take iron will of his own. Recently, the midfielder underwent the third and final operation of his recovery process, and he admits that this was one of those rays of light he looked when he was at square one.

"It went well. I’ve now fully reconstructed all the ligaments in my knee, which is a stage which I’ve been visualising since day one, because it’s been a gruelling process," he told us at the launch of the GPA's Annual report.

"I’ve had three quite heavy surgeries over a prolonged period of three and a half months. It was a challenge, but it’s really promising that it’s all done and everything has went to plan."

And that reconstruction process was as gruelling as it sounds. Indeed, Parsons saw parts of his own right quad and hamstring removed to be placed in his left knee ligament. His injury was so complex that he also required a ligament donation from somebody else's Achilles ligament.

"I now have numerous body-parts of mine in my knee, including my hamstring, my quad, and actually a cadavers ligaments – somebody’s Achilles ligament in my knee."

A cadevar ligament is one that comes from a dead person to repair a defect in a living person.

"Usually with an ACL or PCL or a single or double ligament injury - that needs a full reconstruction, they take grafts from your hamstrings and your quads, and they’ve done that with me. But the only other option is to go into my other leg or get a cadaver ligament. So it is common practice that they do that," he says. "I suppose it does come with a little bit more risk, that your body can accept that ligament. To date, we’re three and a half weeks post surgery, everything is going well and smoothly. But it’s just amazing the science and technology behind rehab and surgery and physiotherapy. It’s amazing how the body can adapt to some of the movement patterns that I was doing in the gym and the rehab, before my last surgery was amazing. Right down to nearly a single leg squat on my bad leg. The body is amazing."

But testament to his character, and with that true Mayo spirit, he's looking on the bright side of it all.

"So depending on the quality of that ligament, I could be jumping even higher next year when I get back!"

It's baby steps at this stage, however. And it's things like wearing the Mayo jersey for Friday morning's announcement that keep him going along the way.

"Absolutely. A big part of sport is visualising yourself performing, visualising yourself on the big day. This week I was afforded the opportunity to put on the 2019 Mayo jersey. When I was asked to do that, I thought ‘what better way, what better visualisation cue to have than a picture of me wearing the 2019 Mayo jersey?’ That will give me huge motivation and drive to really focus on my, to hopefully put on that jersey next summer."

https://twitter.com/MayoGAA/status/1045584094955024384 He's ambitious but not unrealistic, and he says his comeback is at minimum, nine months away.

"With these injuries, you take this on a week by week, month by month basis. But the very fact, if you consider an ACL injury, that I reconstructed three weeks ago, combined with a PCL, the ACL advisory is seven to nine months. So the complexity of this, you’d certainly be airing on the side of the nine months with the complexity of it from my last surgery date which would bring me up to next June."

Though he will be pushing hard all the way.

"But I could be training in other capacities in May of next summer. To be honest, the focus with injuries like this is you set your mini goals and they become your big focus. Your end focus is your visualisation to play with Mayo, and the exact date or time or game, or how that happens, you certainly don’t set that. But I don’t want to rule myself out – I’ll hopefully feature for Mayo in 2019 in some capacity."

What an inspirational man.