Bulging discs, uncertainty over a playing return, dealing with off-the-mark rumours and penning a new contract – it has been a mad couple of months for.Conor Murray.
The Munster scrum-half admitted, back in May 2017, that he had legitimate fears over his playing career. Murray picked up what he would refer to as a “stinger” injury in a Six Nations loss to Wales.
Players often get buzzed in contact and many experience a sensation of numbness as their bodies compartmemntalise and deal with the shock. They often get full range and motion back within minutes.
Murray went in at half-time with that numbness in his arm. He expect feeling to return in 10 minutes or so and came back out for the start of the second half. It was a mistake. He played on for a few more minutes before Kieran Marmion took his place. He ended up missing about 10 weeks of the season as neck and shoulder issues reduced power to his arm.
The Limerick native returned for the end of Munster’s season, starred for the Lions and did not look back. That was until he took another couple of jolts during the 2018 summer tour to Australia. He started all three games, got through the Test Series and hoped his neck would sort itself out with rest in the off-season.
It did not – flaring up instead – and a deep dive into what was causing him pain was instigated. Murray says the full story about his injury was not forthcoming, initially, because no-one knew for sure what was up.
The lack of definitive news for his absence led to a spate of rumours circulating about why Murray was out of the picture. Some speculated it was a career-ending injury while others were sharing messages about off-the-field issues. Some – not all – made their way back to the man himself.
“Big time,” Murray said when asked if he got wind of the loose talk.
“The rumours were crazy. But I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t approach the injury any differently because like you said, my close group of friends and family, I’m letting them know all I know, what all the physios know.
“We know exactly what the injury is and how we’re progressing, what I’ve done this week. For a long period of time, we’d say this is improving and hopefully it’ll continue to improve. Which is what we said soon enough after not saying anything. I’m not in data protection. Unless it’s a different medical issue that you need to keep private, but that wasn’t the intention.
“I think Ronan O’Gara spoke about it recently as well – I met him in London at a Munster dinner. That was never the intention. It was ‘I don’t know what this is, I don’t want it out there yet’ because you don’t know what you’re dealing with. Then you say it’s a neck injury.
“But by that stage, those people make up things, people are in a pub and they’re diagnosing you. That’s there. That’s been there before.”
“I remember Paulie was injured for over a year,” he adds. “He had bad rumours that people were saying about different health reasons. Just bad rumours. That’s the world we’re living in. That will continue for the next fella that does it. If there’s not much clarity around an injury, there’ll be rumours and that’s just the way it is.
“The way Ireland is. The way most countries are, I suppose. You can’t do anything about it.”
Murray – who was at a Pinergy announcement as part their sponsorship of Munster Rugby #WeAre16 – will hate watching other scrum-halves in what he must consider as his No.9 jersey.
“Those three lads you’re talking about – Marmion, McGrath and Cooney – and there are other lads too that could feature,” says Murray.
“They’ve done really well, they’re really good players. Me, over the last few seasons, I’ve started quite a number of games and played a quite a few minutes for Ireland. Those lads have been flying it for their provinces.
“Lukey, Marms and Coons. They’re going really well. That’s going to be the tough part of this November, watching those guys play well. They’re good players. That’s the way it is. That’s tough, but that’s professional sport and that motivates me to get back and play well and put myself in a position to play well and be selected again.
“But yeah, I can see it from your fan’s point of view, it will be interesting definitely. And the whole team. Who’s going to play? You don’t know who’s playing well. You don’t know what the coaches are thinking. There’s obviously the Italy game first then two big ones, as people are talking about it. We’ll treat every game seriously as we always do.”
“But you could potentially see a few changes in and around that,” he adds, “which will be exciting because of the year that is.”
PINERGY has teamed up with Conor Murray, for the 2018/2019 season, as part of its innovative #WeAre16 campaign. PINERGY the official energy partner to Munster Rugby will continue its Fan of the Match competition and introduce the new PINERGY POWER PLAYER for the second year of the #WeAre16 campaign. The Fan of the Match will be presented with a match jersey at every home game along with two tickets to the game. Munster fans will have the chance to nominate themselves through PINERGY’S Facebook page before every home game this season.
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