Meath's Jordan Morris taking 'a big enough risk' but loving the journey

Irish Daily Mirror

09-07-2025

Jordan Morris says he is taking a 'big enough risk' playing with two partially torn knee ligaments, but he's 'loving it at the minute.'
Morris' season looked over when he collapsed in agony back in March in Meath's Division 2 defeat by Louth at Inniskeen.
An ambulance came for the Kingscourt forward with boss Robbie Brennan almost certain afterwards that it was a season ending knee injury.
It would later emerge that Morris had suffered a fractured leg and a grade two tear to his posterior and anterior cruciate knee ligaments.
But the full extent of the damage was never made public, with Morris (24) getting the all clear to play on from leading surgeon Ray Moran without going under the knife for surgery.
Morris was moving freely on Meath match days and it soon became apparent that his 2025 inter-county race may not be run.
Lo and behold, Morris came in as a sub after 45 minutes of the Leinster Final meeting with Louth at Croke Park.
And although the Royals didn't win that one, Morris has started all four Championship games since, culminating in a magnificent 1-6 from play haul in the shock All-Ireland quarter-final victory over Galway.
He also fired a brilliant individual goal, which proved crucial in the All-Ireland round robin victory over Cork.
Morris hit two points from play in the draw with Roscommon and one point from play against Kerry before exploding against Galway.
The flying forward missed his first three shots in the All-Ireland quarter-final, but it didn't deter him, as he went on to terrorise the Tribe rearguard, turning over the ball that led to his own game changing goal from Matthew Costello's pass.
After losing James Conlon for the season, Morris' presence on the inside line has been vital for Meath.
'Basically I was told there's maybe a 40percent chance players who go back with a grade 2 tear can fully rupture it,' said Morris.
'So that's the risk I'm playing with at the minute. It's probably a big enough risk. But there's a 60percent chance I won't do it.
'It is in the back of your mind at times. You just have to manage it as much as you can. I'm playing with a risk and I'm loving it at the minute so it's great.
'It feels all good at the minute anyway. All the work and rehab is paying off.
The TUD Sport, Health and Science student, who made his Meath senior debut back in 2020, continued: 'Probably the overriding feeling straight after the Louth game was that my year was done.
'It probably took maybe a week or a week and a half to get a full grasp of what happened.
'I went to see Ray Moran and he said he was happy enough with the structure of the ligaments. He said just rehab away at it. So there was no surgery required at all thank god.
'The doctors and physios I was dealing with were very good. They laid out a pathway straight away.
'I think I was given maybe eight weeks to get back on the pitch and I think I managed to get back in six, pushing and driving it on.
'I'm taking a bit of a risk as it is, but with the year we were having, I couldn't miss out on it. So I was just trying to do everything I could to get back on the panel and matchday squad.'
He continued: 'I would have been rehabbing three times a day, injections and stuff like that to get back on the pitch. And then the S&C work you have to do.
'It's mad within even a week of not playing how much you can lose a bit of match fitness.
'I think that was probably a thought in my mind and on the physios', to get back to that level of gameplay. It was so hard to go back to it.
'The S&Cs, Philip Campbell and David Drake, are probably one of the best I've ever worked with.
'They got me back in a position to get out on the pitch in the Leinster final, so I can only thank them.'
All that hard work paid off in spades against Galway as Morris propelled Meath to a first All-Ireland semi-final since 2009.
His left handed fisted point under massive pressure was a huge score, while his bounce dummy and step move for one of his second half points had the crowd purring.
'It's probably something I've worked on,' he says. 'I played a lot of basketball down through my younger years.
'It probably combines with the basketball and GAA kind of aspect to be fair.
'Robbie gives you the freedom of the park. He wants you to go out and try these different things.
'Look, if you make a few mistakes or turnovers, he's not going to hold a grudge about it.
'He wants to see them 'creative turnovers,' as he calls them. He's probably had a good effect on my game.
'He's allowing me to go out and express myself a bit more. That's probably the impact Robbie's having on me.
'I've probably done a good bit of work with Niall O'Donoghue, our Performance Coach, these past couple of years.
'The three misses (against Galway). You just think about the next ball. If you start thinking about them it might ruin your game and it affects different things.
'The work I've done with Niall just proved to me that no matter what happens, it's the next ball and that's what I try to do anyway.
'From a personal point of view, the new rules probably blended into my type of game. I think as a team as well, it probably suits us down to the ground.
'Maybe the last couple of years we've been talking about breaking down the defences and things like that.
'Moving away from that type of style of defence has suited us, I think, as a group. That's probably helping us out a bit.'
*** Jordan Morris was named the PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month in football for June