Cronin: I had to take that step back to get my body right

ORLA Cronin is hopeful her injury nightmare is over.

The 2020 Camogie All-Star endured a frustrating campaign with Cork this year.

Plagued by injuries, the Enniskeane ace missed the entire league campaign and featured in only three championship games before she stepped away from the county panel ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final.

Out-of-luck Cronin felt she had no other choice.

‘It was definitely a hard decision to make. It wasn’t how I intended the year to pan out for me. It was very frustrating,’ Cronin told this week’s Star Sport Podcast.

‘I came into the year carrying a bit of a niggle and it was tough going into pre-season carrying a knock. I was doing my best to come back from injuries but when I went back into the thick of training I would pick up another soft tissue injury. Initially it was my quad, and then my hamstring.

‘I really had to try to find the balance in getting the load right, getting adequate recovery but also trying to train. It all just started to catch up on me. There were other little things, too; I picked up some rib bruising in another game when I just got back. 

‘You have ups and downs as an athlete, and it was one of those years when a lot of unfortunate events happened and caught up with me. Before I knew it, it was in the thick of the season when you want to be training pain-free and injury-free, but you’re playing catch-up after those injuries. 

‘Those injuries forced me out and I needed a bit more time to get right. Obviously I want to play with Cork, and seeing the girls play in the All-Ireland final was tough, but I am happy that I took the time to get right because my aim is to be fit for the coming year.’

Cronin’s injury woes were eventually traced back to a muscle issue in her hip, similar to tendonitis, but hamstring and quad strains she suffered had masked the root of her problems.

It was a frustrating period when she didn’t know what was causing her injury troubles.

It restricted her inter-county involvement to three appearances in Group 1 of the senior camogie championship. She came on as a sub against Wexford, started in the wins against Clare and Dublin, but missed the next game with Waterford, and in July Cronin felt she had no other option than to step back from the panel.

‘I did everything I could to get back right but when it wasn’t happening, it was going to be impossible to get myself right for the semi-final and then final,’ she explained.

‘I had to take that step back to get my body right. It was a long year of rehab for me and figuring out what the issues were, and getting to the source of them.’

While Cork went on to reach the All-Ireland final – and Cronin was in the stands in Croke Park to cheer her team-mates on against Kilkenny – her attention was on getting back to full fitness with her club, Enniskeane, in the county senior camogie championship.

‘We had four games, and by the fourth game I was starting to feel better and my body was feeling better. That time away stood to me, to get on top of my injuries,’ she said.

An injury-free Cronin is looking forward to returning to the inter-county set-up for 2023, and that’s good news for Cork who need their influential forward fit and firing. She’s a big-game player who was Cork’s top performer in the 2021 All-Ireland final, and was involved in a Cork score every nine minutes during that year’s championship campaign.

Cork GAA stars Orla Cronin and Libby Coppinger are both travelling to Kenya this month for Plant for the Planet Games.

To support them, visit www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/OrlaCronin and www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/LibbyCoppinger1