Quirke puts knee injury behind him and may lead out Tipperary

The Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor hurling final could kickstart a memorable couple of weeks for the Moyle Rovers club in south Tipperary.

The Monroe outfit supplies the county's minor captains in both codes, and on Sunday Stephen Quirke, if he has the backing of Tipperary minor hurling manager Liam Cahill, looks set to lead the hurlers into battle against Galway .

On September 20th it is the turn of clubmate Danny Owens when he captains the footballers against Kerry in a repeat of the Munster final between the counties.

For Quirke there’s a huge sense of relief that he is in a position to play after suffering what could have been a season-ending injury.

Quirke crumpled in a heap during the Munster semi-final against Clare in June, and immediately feared the worst.

A diagnosis at a sports surgery clinic in Dublin a couple of days later revealed posterior cruciate knee ligament damage.

Operation

“It could have been the anterior cruciate; I probably wouldn’t be here now, only getting back from an operation and only probably starting my rehabilitation,” he says.

“That would be strange stuff because after a week or two, I was back doing weights and stuff, but with anterior it’s a much longer process and you’re doing stuff that you don’t like doing, like just jogging and light cycling work.

“The posterior was a bit of a relief as well because I knew there was something badly wrong with the knee.

“When the MRI came through as posterior I was happy enough.

“My initial thoughts when I went down, and the physio thought it as well, were that my anterior was gone. I didn’t want to hear about it.”

But Quirke, a strapping 6ft 4in, made his comeback against Kildare last Sunday as the footballers made it through to the All-Ireland minor final.

He kicked a long-range point for good measure after coming off the bench.

Stephen’s injury is not the only knee problem that has afflicted the family in recent times.

Tennis

His brother Philip, a 2011 All-Ireland minor football medallist, has had recurring cruciate problems, and his mother damaged her knee playing tennis. Quirke said : “It happened to the mother as well! There’s two of them in the house with two anterior cruciates – I didn’t want to add on a third one!”