Declan O'Sullivan retired this week, bringing to a close one of the most decorated, admired and respected careers in football. A long term knee injury finally brought the curtain down on his time with Kerry, and tonight O'Sullivan spoke to Off the Ball about his injury, his decision to call it a day, and the career he leaves in his wake.
Speaking to Ger Gilroy and Colm Parkinson, O’Sullivan said his knee injury meant that now “was probably the right time” to call a halt to his career.
“My left knee is in pretty bad shape and it would take a lot to get back to the level needed,” he said.
The knee injury, which saw several surgeries and led to a loss of cartilage around the knee, became so acute in the past 12 months that O’Sullivan was flying to Dublin while the rest of the Kerry team got the bus, as a bus journey of that duration would have caused his knee to seize up.
“This (injury) is going back to 2004 … there’s large parts of my left knee without any cartilage … really it’s just bone on bone so if I train hard it swells up and its painful,” O’Sullivan said.
The injury is a permanent one, in that no level of rehab can regenerate what has been lost – in real terms, the cartilage in O’Sullivan’s knee. It was this, and the lack of any tangible goal to offer hope or recovery, that told him he had to quit.
“If it was an injury I could rehab and even get back to 80 or 90%” that would be OK.
“If you want to play at the top level that Kerry want to be at then it’s not really realistic long term,” he said.
Along with discussing the end, O’Sullivan looked back at the glorious moments of a career that reached incredible highs in a short space of time.
In an inter-county career that lasted just 11 years, O’Sullivan amassed an incredible trophy haul, including becoming one of just eight people to lift Sam Maguire more than once as captain – O’Sullivan raised it as Kerry captain in both 2006 and 2007.
During that career he collected every honour possible at county level, as well as collecting an array of honours with his club side – South Kerry.
He made 70 championship appearances in the Kerry shirt, finishing with a second half substitute appearance against Donegal in September, and winning his fifth celtic cross.
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