Interview: Kildare captain Doyle back doing light training, but not rushing his return

Becoming the captain of your county is certainly a dream come true for most footballers, and when you speak to Eoin Doyle there is still great enthusiasm in his voice, even after having had two months to let that feeling sink in. A tinge of sadness is also evident however, which is perfectly understandable given the fact he has yet to lead his team onto the pitch in a playing capacity.

The Kildare captain is back on the pitch after a tough few months of rehab, but insists that he is not putting any set timeframe on the date of his return to action. While the Naas man would love to be back in contention for the Leinster Championship opener against Wexford late next month, he says that setting dates for a return is not on his mind because it is hugely frustrating to miss out if such targets are not met.

He also outlined that if he was fit enough to return to the side, he would have to fight to gain his place back in the team because the competition for places is so competitive.

Doyle has been working incredibly hard during his rehabilitation from the osteitis pubis injury he is suffering from, and 7.30am sessions in the Santry Sports Clinic in Dublin have become common practice for the PE teacher.

"I'm putting in a big shift rehab wise now, doing a lot of time up in Santry so I'm back on the pitch doing straight line stuff, very light stuff. It's a start, I suppose it's a step closer than I was a couple of weeks ago maybe."

"The main thing is that I'm seeing a bit of progression now because for maybe three or four months there I was getting very frustrated because I was doing a lot of work and putting in a lot of effort but not getting the results in terms of progression. I'm hoping now that over the next couple of weeks that things start to steadily increase and progress. That's the plan anyways. In terms of coming back to training, I don't actually know," he said.

Captaining the Lilywhites is the dream of any young footballer in Kildare, and for Doyle it came at a relatively early stage of his career when he was awarded the honour to do just that. The fact that he has been captain for a number of months without actually playing is admittedly a source of frustration for him, but he outlined how thankful he is to manager Cian O'Neill for not rushing him back into anything before he is ready.

"I keep telling myself that that's not the reason I'm frustrated but I'd say it is part of it. I'm frustrated and annoyed because I'm not able to do what I want to do. Firstly, I'm not able to train, then I'm not able to play."

The injury that Doyle suffers from is known as osteitis pubis, which is essentially a chronic overuse injury that affects the muscles and joints around the pelvic bone such as the groin or the hip. It has become more common over the last number of years due to the amount of high intensity training that players are doing, and many of the GAA's leading players have suffered from the injury.

Much of the time, the problem can be so bad that the injured party can struggle to pull themselves out of bed the next day, have problems walking and even simple things such as using the pedals in a car can cause excruciating pain.

While Doyle hasn't suffered such chronic pain this time around, he is no stranger to the full implications that the condition can bring with it. Having initially suffered from the same injury back in 2013, Doyle says something like wearing a belt with a buckle that pushes up against that area was causing him massive pain.

"I could go through a list of things now. There's loads of things, thank God this time around I never let it get to that stage where I was that chronically bad. In 2013 when I first got it, towards the end of that year would have been my worst. Those exact things, getting out of bed, playing club games towards the end of that year it would literally be two, three or four weeks before you felt anyways normal again. That was at the tail end of it when I was at my worst, and I made it very clear to Cian that I didn't want it to get to that stage because that's out of football, that's interfering on an awful lot of things in other parts of your life. It's a horrible, horrible injury," said Doyle.

Unlike other injuries, there is no timeframe on when somebody can return from osteitis pubis. For years it was an injury that many in the GAA thought was some kind of myth that was 'all in a player's head', and unlike broken legs or torn ligaments, it is not immediately visible or fixable through an operation.

"When you look at things like ACL's(anterior cruciate ligament injuries) and stuff like that, you get the operation. You tie two things together and you get the rehab and you know exactly what's wrong. With the osteitis pubis, it's a horrible injury. It could be a range of different things like your hips, your abductors, your groins, your lower abs. Whatever it is, it's hard to get that right, but I got to that stage a couple of years ago. When I first noticed it back this time, towards the end of the International Rules, I knew it was coming so I was just trying to stop it at the source and that's what we're doing," concluded Doyle.

For the newly appointed captain it may take some more time to get back onto the playing field, but a short term loss of playing time will be of long time benefit in the rest of his career.