'At no time did I think I would be playing with Limerick again' - Keeper Josh Ryan on miraculous return to football after leg break

Irish Examiner

11-07-2025

The unlikely goalkeeper. The grateful goalkeeper. The I-don't-want-to-be-in-here-forever goalkeeper.
Limerick football teams appearing in championship deciders of any hue are a rare enough occurrence. Collating such lists is not a menial task. It is a task requiring no more than a few minutes.
At senior inter-county level, tomorrow's Tailteann Cup final is just the second such final appearance of the past 15 seasons. The other was the 2022 Munster decider.
Josh Ryan wore No.14 that Munster final Saturday. This coming Saturday, he'll wear No.1.
Truth be known, he is thankful to be in a position to pull on any jersey at all.
Given the incident is almost three-years-old at this stage, you may or may not be familiar with the story of Josh Ryan's leg break.
October 16, 2022. Limerick SHC semi-final. Doon versus Kilmallock. Seven minutes elapsed at Bruff. Crack. Snapple. Pop. The half-back's tibia lay in smithereens, broken in three places.
The leg break was so severe that for a small window there were fears of the leg possibly being lost.
Indeed, when Ryan was first put on an operating table and opened up, they didn't have a nail long enough to secure the smashed tibia. An external fixator was instead employed to keep the leg straight and prevent any movement.
Against Wicklow in the Tailteann Cup semi-final three weeks ago, and three years on from his top-scoring 2022 summer, he stopped a 57th minute Oisin McGraynor penalty at a time when Limerick trailed by the minimum.
Ten minutes later, the Mallow-based Garda landed a massive two-point free - the kick travelled 63 metres - to cement another championship final involvement for the Treaty.
What went between was suffering, self-doubt, and far too much sitting around.
'With the injury and the extent of it, did I think I'd see the day again that I would be wearing a Limerick jersey? Not really,' Ryan admits.
'I might have seen the day of wearing a club jersey, but at no time did I think I'd be playing with Limerick again. I am extremely grateful for that.'
Ryan celebrates scoring a two-pointer from a free late in the second half during the Tailteann Cup semi-final against Wicklow at Croke Park. File picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Surgery was October 2022. It was five months later before the crutches were given their P45. The early days of weight bearing kept his cup of worry filled to the brim. The leg would be swollen after just 20 unsupported minutes.
He trained the Oola footballers for the 2023 season where he was sidelined. He literally trained them from the sideline.
'You'd be sitting down training the lads and shouting as much as you can to get them to do things. But it is very hard when you are sitting down and static. The days are very long when you are sitting at home. You just want to be active,' the 27-year-old says in reflection.
Once he began properly loading, he began walking three and four kilometres just to get some bit of movement into the for-so-long dormant leg. The pain roared. So too did his lungs. Breaks were required 300 and 400 metres in.
'That all just put so much doubt in my mind as to how am I ever going to run again when I am struggling to walk. From being involved in teams my whole life and playing since I was four, I was saying to myself, 'Jesus, am I ever going to get the chance to play sport again or am I going to be sitting on my leg coaching teams at 24 and 25 years of age? Not knowing was the toughest part.'
December, 2023. The leg break and surgery are 14 months in the rearview mirror. Only now has he reached the point where running can be attempted. But even at that, his return to running must be attempted within the safety structure of an anti-gravity treadmill. There began a tortuous 13 weeks inside in the UPMC sports medicine clinic on the TUS campus.
'Getting used to impact and foot-striking again was really difficult. You'd look at the anti-gravity machine and say, this will be handy. But then you'd get off it and you'd be drowned in sweat. It was incredibly tough. There was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears throughout the whole course of rehab because you just don't know if you are ever going to play again, never mind wear a Limerick jersey.'
March 16, 2024. Exactly 17 months to the day since the disastrous Limerick hurling semi-final. He has again in his possession a Limerick jersey. Mind you, the number on the back is the last one he ever envisaged wearing.
Donal O'Sullivan's retirement the previous winter had left a sizable void. In the pre-season McGrath Cup, Aaron O'Sullivan and Jeffrey Alfred were auditioned. For the opening five rounds of their Division 3 League campaign, O'Sullivan held first-choice status.
But facing a tricky breeze in the first half of their Round 5 fixture at home to Clare, O'Sullivan struggled from the kicking tee and was replaced by Jack English three minutes before the break.
For Round 6 in Aughrim, Josh Ryan was a most unexpected selection between the sticks. His first inter-county game since the last-12 qualifier defeat to Cork in June 2022. He kept a clean sheet and converted four frees in a 0-9 to 0-8 defeat.
He was back. He's started 21 of their 22 games since. He doesn't want to stay there.
'Obviously I took the hands off the lads when they asked me to play in goals because I wasn't in a position to play out-field as I was still getting pain in the leg. Playing in goal is great, but the end goal is to get back out the field with Limerick.' For now, the No.1 shirt, and indeed all green shirts, is in good hands.
'Everyone in the panel gets on so well, there are no egos, and everyone is there for the betterment of Limerick football. We are all there because we want to leave Limerick football in a better place than it was for the next generation.'
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