Damien Comer: ‘You haven’t as much time left as you think. I still feel like I’m in my early 20s’

The last thing Damien Comer needs reminding of is how his football season ended last summer, or indeed Galway’s for that matter. A helpless observer in an increasingly hopeless situation in his own back yard.

It was bad enough arch rivals Mayo had scored 1-5 without reply early in the second half, irreversibly turning the destiny of their All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final on that gusty June afternoon at Pearse Stadium; worse still that Comer had just surrendered to another hamstring injury, replaced at half-time by Ian Burke.

Galway lost by a point, 1-10 to 0-12.

They play Mayo again in Sunday’s opening round of the Allianz Football League (a repeat of last year’s opener too), and Comer declares himself injury-free – “touch wood”. Having just turned 30, he is also starting into his 11th season with Galway, many of which were stop-start due to his often familiar encounters with injury.

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“It was fairly frustrating on a personal level,” Comer says of last season. “It was very much a case of play a game, miss a game. I suppose at the start of the year with the knee injury initially, I missed most of the league. I got back and played a part in the league final, got some games under my belt in the Connacht Championship.

“But when it came to the group stages, the hamstring injury started niggling and I wasn’t able to get fluid training done. It hampered me a good bit. But I’ve got a good preseason under me now so I’m looking forward to trying get back to where I was a couple of years ago. Hopefully all the injuries are behind me, touch wood.”

His own experience was in many ways mirrored by Galway. After making the All-Ireland final in 2022, narrowly losing to Kerry (Comer later awarded with an All Star), they struggled to rediscover any sort of consistency or real attacking force.

In truth Comer was chasing fitness all season: “I’d only 10 days of rehab done, so I was probably going to be under pressure for the full game anyway,” he says of the Mayo encounter. “It was hard to watch on. There was a gale-force wind, and it was with Mayo in the second half, but we probably just weren’t clinical enough on the day.”

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Galway’s season may well have turned a week earlier, when they lost to Armagh and were suddenly forced into that preliminary quarter-final: “Something just didn’t click with us. I didn’t play any of the league, Shane [Walsh] was missing for a good bit of it and Seán Kelly missed a few games as well.

“A lot of the younger lads stepped up during the league, then when injuries kicked in, we just didn’t seem to get the balance right, or we just didn’t seem to click together as well as we probably did the year previous during the run to the All-Ireland. Our scoring efficiency was probably below where we wanted it to be.”

Turning 30 has not changed Comer’s mindset, although he has become more aware of his limits, in training and in matches.

“It’s [about] listening to your body, if your body feels good, you’re good to go. Probably the one thing you realise is you haven’t as much time left as you think. I still feel like I’m in my early 20s, but I think I’m going into my 11th season with Galway, so it doesn’t be long going,” he says.

“I’ve also tried a couple of different things to get in as good a shape as possible, more robust for the amount of games in a short space of time. It’s not even games, it’s training as well – they can be as hard as games. Last year I was playing a game then missing a couple of trainings and missing a game or train once a week – that’s not ideal.

“It’s a little bit more specific on my own body, regards training. Different exercises and stuff. Nothing crazy. Just something that better suits me. I found certain exercises might suit my body type or affect my back or my hamstrings, so I try and keep away from that.

“And I’ve always kind of been curious of GAA warm-ups. I’m an Arsenal fan. Even when I’m over in the Emirates I’d be watching soccer players and the way they warm up is completely different to the way GAA players warm-up. Just to strike the balance. I see GAA warm-ups as fairly intense, nearly match intense but then Premier League warm-ups are very calm.

“They are different sports at the end of the day. GAA is high contact. Even the rugby warm-ups would be more similar to GAA than they are to soccer. It’s upper body contact, but a different type of sport. Stuff like that is interesting to watch.”

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