‘I’M not a good patient,’ Phil Healy laughs. ‘Definitely on the more irritable side of the scale!’

Two weeks after surgery in September on her troublesome right shoulder – the one that kept popping out, most recently after the women’s 400m final at the national seniors in early August – Phil was already urging her physio to speed up her recovery. He didn’t budge.

‘In fairness, Conor told me I need to take it step by step – otherwise I’ll do more damage,’ she says.

Phil will admit she’s not one for hanging around, those fast-twitch fibres having powered her to become one of the fastest women in Ireland. But shoulder surgery has forced her to ease off, ruling her out of the upcoming indoor season.

Now 31, and well aware that the finishing line is closer than the start line, the competitive DNA that has driven her success still pushes her forward – but experience has taught her the value of slowing down when she needs to. And this is one of those times.

‘It’s a very different type of injury. I had to get the surgery. I’d put it off long enough. But it got to the point where it was very unstable and there was a lot of damage in there, so the surgeon did require extra anchors,’ Phil explains.

The first time she dislocated her right shoulder was in April 2020, just after the country had shut down for Covid. During a weights session in her home gym, her shoulder popped as she attempted a maximum snatch – an Olympic lift from floor to overhead. Her coach, Shane McCormack, had to pop it back in, taking advice from a physio over FaceTime.

Since then, that shoulder has been troublesome. The most recent dislocation was almost comically innocuous – it popped out as she was getting dressed after a final at the nationals.

‘I properly dislocated my shoulder the first time,’ she says, ‘and it has probably happened once a year since. There has always been someone there to put it back in, whereas at the nationals it popped out when I was putting on my t-shirt after the race, and it took a while to go back in,’ Phil adds.

Phil Healy greets fans at the national championships having just dislocated her shoulder. (Photo: Eric Bellamy)

A physio at Morton Stadium did the needful.

‘They said, “Okay, we’ll give you gas and air and take you to the hospital”, but I told them to get it back in, fast! I wasn’t taking any gas and air or going to the hospital – you need to get it back in quickly.

‘The more it pops out, the more damage it causes. There was also a tear to the muscle around it. So it was very unstable. There was no avoiding the surgery.’

When we spoke to Phil, she was still unable to lift her right hand above her head. It’s those small, everyday things we take for granted – tying her hair, lifting a mug. There were little ‘micro victories’ along the way: within a two-week period in November she went from needing her left hand to lift her right arm, to being able to raise it unaided. All progress, but for someone used to living in the fast lane, life in the slow lane takes adjusting to.

‘As an athlete, you are competitive and you know where you need to be,’ she explains – a nod to the consistency that has defined her since 2014.

Perhaps that consistency goes under the radar. Phil has fronted up every single year, indoor and outdoor. Seventeen national senior titles across 60m, 100m, 200m and 400m. Two Olympic finals, in Tokyo and Paris. European 4x400m relay silver. And that’s just the tip of the Healy iceberg.

So, to sit out the upcoming indoor season will rankle. But she’s been relatively fortunate with injuries – aside from a broken foot in 2019, when a misstep on the cobbled streets of Valletta saw her fracture her fifth metatarsal, and a niggly Achilles at times. That’s been about it.

‘I’ve been lucky with injuries, so this was a tough one to adjust to. It took me away from a lot of the things I do every day,’ she says, before explaining why the recovery is so crucial.

‘Your shoulder is everything, from your mechanics and form when you’re competing, but even more so in the gym, and that’s just as important to us as the running side,’ Phil says.

‘I’m in the gym three days a week and running three days a week. The strength and power we build comes from heavy lifting, so I need to be as strong as possible to lift the bar in all different positions.

‘When you’re on your marks, all your weight is on your shoulders. When you stretch out to pass the relay baton, those are compromised positions where your shoulder is under pressure. It needs to be as strong as it possibly can.’

This is a slow return to normality. Phil was told her rehab would take four months, so she’s well along that road now as the calendar turns to a new year. She’s glad to see the back of 2025. It was full of frustrations, a low after the highs of the previous year when she ran in an Olympic final and won European silver with the Irish women’s 4x400m team.

The past year was one setback after another. The European Indoors didn’t go to plan. The Irish mixed 4x400m relay team finished fifth in the final. Phil missed the women’s 4x400m final through illness. Then she dislocated her shoulder at the nationals. Surgery followed. And all of this played out against a backdrop of personal health issues that challenged her again.

‘Last season might have been the post-Olympics comedown as well,’ she says.

‘It’s so hard to keep going year after year. Yes, I haven’t had the injuries, but other athletes may have had a break with injuries, a stop and a pause. I’ve competed every single year.

‘Many athletes don’t do indoor and outdoor every year, but I have because I’ve been in the position to do it. When you train 11 months of the year, take one off, and do that for 14 years straight, it takes its toll.’

This forced break has presented a different challenge as she looks ahead to 2026. No indoor season, and the European Athletics Championships aren’t until August.

‘It won’t be until the outdoor season that you’ll see me competing,’ she adds, and the hope is that the Ballineen Bullet will be back in full flight again so whatever the future brings, it will all be on her own terms.