LIBBY Coppinger is more conscious of her dual workload this season than in recent years, and there’s a reason for that.
The St Colum’s dual star missed the entire 2024 football and camogie All-Ireland championship campaigns after suffering a serious hamstring injury in the footballers’ Munster round-robin win against Tipperary on May 4th.
She didn’t realise at the time, but that injury – diagnosed as a grade three hamstring tear that required surgery – would end her season for county and club.
Last Saturday Coppinger lined out in a competitive game for Cork for the first time in 266 days as Joe Carroll’s footballers beat Westmeath (3-12 to 0-5) in their Division 2 league opener at Páirc Uí Rinn.
She marked her return in style, rattling home two goals in the opening quarter as Cork raced out of the traps. Even though her comeback game was cut short late in the first half as she limped off with a dead leg after a knee into her quad, it felt good to be back.
This is what the Kealkill woman (28) was building towards since undergoing surgery on her hamstring on May 18th.
Libby Coppinger scoring Cork's first goal against Westmeath in her comeback game on Saturday. (Photo: Paddy Feen)
‘That’s what we do all the training for: to play,’ she says, looking forward to a big year for the Cork football and the camogie teams.
The footballers, under new management, want to set the tone in the league and win promotion back to Division 1 ahead of the Munster and All-Ireland championships. The camogie team, under Ger Manley, is on top of the pile right now and targeting the three-in-a-row at All-Ireland level. Two-time camogie All-Star Coppinger (2022 and ’23) is a rock in the Cork defence and will strengthen Manley’s options this season.
Right now, the vastly-experienced Coppinger is determined to line out for both codes, but after last season’s injury troubles she will keep a close eye on her workload.
‘This year more than any year you are more conscious of that,’ Coppinger admits.
‘Thankfully, my hamstring feels good, but I have to be a little bit more aware of it and the load on it.
‘The (the dual decision) was definitely in the back of my mind but, as always, you don’t really know which one you would pick over the other, and both managements are working really well together so that has helped. They are both aware of the injury and what I need to do.
‘It would have been hard to step away without having tried it. If it comes to a stage in the year when it’s not possible, then I’ll have to face that. Coming back, I want to give it a go. Please God, it will work out.’
Both camps want a fully-fit Coppinger as she strengthens both teams – lining out in attack for the footballers, and in defence for the camogie team – and she’s eager to make up for lost time after her hamstring injury ended her 2024 season.
‘I was lunging out for the ball, and overextended basically; that is a good example of how you do this injury, when you hurt the tendon so high up towards the hip. I didn’t have previous hamstring trouble or wasn’t flat out sprinting, it was more about the position my body went in when it happened,’ Coppinger recalls of how she suffered the injury in action against Tipperary’s footballers.
The following day she was in with the Cork camogie set-up and although the Cork star knew that she had injured her hamstring, she didn’t realise the extent of it – that all became clearer after an MRI scan the following Thursday,
‘That week at camogie training, I did a tiny bit of jogging and, again, felt pretty okay. With my lower hamstring I almost felt fatigue in it, but I took no notice, I was thinking it’s great I am back running just a week later,’ Coppinger recalls, and then came the phone call that stopped her in her tracks: she was told she had suffered a grade three hamstring tear.
‘That wasn’t the news I was expecting because I didn’t think the injury would be that bad,’ she says, and at that stage she was facing ten weeks out which put her camogie championship campaign into doubt. A meeting with consultant Dr Joe Jordan highlighted the seriousness of her injury.
‘We did some tests, and I had way less power in my right leg compared to my left. He went through the MRI, and it was the tear in the tendon – it wasn’t off the bone but it was so close to it, and there was no tension in it anymore,’ Coppinger recalls.
‘He said you could potentially try to rehab it but it would nearly take as long as the surgery, and with the surgery you have a far better guarantee of coming back; that was his recommendation, because I played at the highest level you need to get this right.
‘I had the surgery that Saturday (May 18th), so in two weeks I went from thinking I’ll be fine, to facing ten weeks out, to five months from the surgery. It was a long road, but there are longer roads to take too so you need to be aware of that.’
All-Ireland winner Libby Coppinger is a two-time camogie All-Star.
Having had surgery, and facing five months on the sidelines, Coppinger’s 2024 season was over. She had to watch on as the Cork footballers qualified for the All-Ireland semi-final, while the Rebels’ camogie team defended their All-Ireland crown in August, beating Galway in Croke Park.
‘There was a finality to it, the surgery took any humming and hawing out of it; my year finished there and then. It was hard. I have been very lucky in my whole playing career to not have had any major injury like this, so this was something new to deal with,’ she says.
‘I did fade away for a small bit, I just felt it would be better to stay away for a little while, just to get my head around it, but everyone was so supportive; I got so many lovely messages.
‘It hit at different stages. When you are told you need surgery, you focus on that. As the championship went on, you realise how much you miss it and how you would love to be out there training and playing with the girls.’
Coppinger had a front-row seat as Cork defended their All-Ireland title, and on All-Ireland final day Ger Manley made sure she got a jersey and fell part of the group; it’s those gestures that eased the pain of missing out.
‘We have a very close group and everyone did try to make me feel part of it, so it was definitely mixed emotions on All-Ireland final day, because you are delighted for the group, but watching from the stands is a lot harder than playing,’ she says, but her comeback coincided with Cork’s return to pre-season, which meant she could take her time with rehab and not rush.
Last Saturday, after over eight months without a competitive game, Coppinger was back with a bang for the Cork footballers, scoring two goals in her first game of what she hopes will be a long season in both codes.
