Meadhbh Deeney, a top GAA footballer, has said she is
grateful to still have all of her teeth and her two eyes after an horrific
crash earlier this year when she took to off-road cycling to keep fit in her
home county of Wicklow.
The 26-year-old
lined out at full-forward in Sunday’s TG4 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship
semi-final and was a key scorer as her
Wicklow side progressed to the final.
However, she said
she was very grateful the only lasting damage she was left with from her cycling
crash in May was some scarring to her face.
“I’m just so lucky I have all my teeth
and both my eyes,” she said. “I
was mountain biking up in Kilpedder.
It was a bad old fall but I was so lucky.
Advertisement
“I
scratched up my face and have two small scars now. I took a chunk out of my
knee as well. I had a concussion. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet.
“It was a bit of a journey then to get back. Even now
getting back on the bike...it’s been tough. I was doing the turbo trainer for
ages just trying to work up to it.”
Related News
Deeney recovered from her injuries in time to get back
into top shape and into competition on the field in recent weeks.
She returned to GAA in 2018 after she spent five years on a soccer scholarship with
Savannah College in Georgia, studying film and television production.
“It was pretty tight for me coming back,” she said of
returning to playing for her club and for Wicklow after her cycling crash.
“I missed the first round of the club championship
because of it. I didn't have clearance until the week of our first game.
"But I knew the feeling after playing with the girls
in Division 3. I knew that I wanted to get back to that and to that level of
fitness.
“I worked so hard to do that, and I knew every other girl on the team was doing the same thing."
Topics
