Darragh Fitzgibbon is refusing to rule out a sensational return to action in this weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Offaly. The Cork captain has been sidelined with appendicitis and was forced to go under the knife. Fitzgibbon has made a speedy recovery and has already returned to training. With a couple more sessions to go ahead of the weekend, it’s a case of wait and see for the 29-year-old. “Obviously I’m still in that five and six-week period,” he said. “I’m obviously back doing more than
I did previous to the Munster final, but we still have a week of training left. “It’s only Monday yet, so we’ll have to see how Tuesday and Thursday go. I’ll try my best obviously to get back for it, but we’ll see how it goes after Thursday night. “I haven’t done any full session yet. That kind of wasn’t in my schedule. I probably still am on track, but just see how it goes.” Fitzgibbon was named on Cork’s standby panel for the Munster
final defeat to Limerick, but there were no plans to throw the midfielder back into action so soon after his operation. He explained: “I was back doing a bit of training that week, but I was never really going to be playing. “I think that was just done really, obviously with the role I have this year [as captain] – just to be in around the lads and in around the warm-up, and on the bus and things like that. “The goal was never really
to be back for a Munster final; it was too soon. That was just the way it panned out – I know people got a little bit excited.” He explained how a suspected tummy bug ended with an emergency trip to the hospital. “Three or four weeks ago, it was a Thursday evening after school, I just got a pain in my stomach and I thought it was a bug or something like that,” said the teacher. “We weren’t training until the Saturday, and I
knew I’d be meeting the medical team and the doctors in Cork at training on Saturday morning, so I kind of left off doing anything until then. “Then, once I arrived at training on Saturday morning, I just got assessed by the doctor and he said, ‘That’s your appendix, you need to go straight to the hospital’. “That’s what happened, and I was lucky, Dr Adrian Murphy looked after me exceptionally well and I was in and out within 24 hours. “Obviously these things can
get quite serious, so at the end of the day I was happy with the way things worked out and on the road to recover now again, thank God. “I was given a four to six-week plan on a return to sport. But, to be fair, the operation was done incredibly well, and I was able to make a quick recovery. “I was back, out and about, walking around the place three or four days later. And then I was back at school after a
week. “We’d plenty of Sciath na Scol matches and stuff like that; I couldn’t miss them so I had to make sure I was back for them. “Then just within training, the return to training was slow enough. Obviously things were sore and things were tender, so just taking it session by session and week by week really.” He admitted that his prospects of playing in the remainder of the Championship were far from his thoughts as he went under the knife. “At the end
of the day, your health is your health and it (appendix) had to come out. So, I had no decision really to make,” he said. “And it all kind of happened in a little bit of a whirlwind. “I thought I had a bug going to training, and next thing I was on the road to CUH to see if I needed to get my appendix out. And then I had to, two or three hours later. “So yeah, at the end of the day,
he explained the scenarios to me. “When you’re explained a serious enough situation like that, hurling decisions kind of go out the window and a decision just had to be made to get rid of it.” # eir Ambassador Darragh Fitzgibbon marked eir’s continued support of the GAA All‑Ireland Senior Hurling Championship and the fourth year of the Poc Tapa Challenge, a competition open to every GAA club in the country, where the fastest team wins €5,000 for their club and the chance to play
in Croke Park on semi‑final day. “To enter, visit @eir.Ireland on Instagram. eir is recognised by Opensignal as having Ireland’s No.1 5G network coverage. Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond .
Darragh Fitzgibbon, Cork, Offaly, All-Ireland quarter-final, appendicitis, hospital, Dr Adrian Murphy, CUH, Munster final, Limerick, return to training