Taking the upward slope back

Gaelic Games/National Football League: Joe Higgins of Laois tells Ian O'Riordan how innovative surgery may have saved his career.

After seven games in nine weeks most county footballers won't be too upset if their league interests will have ended by Sunday evening. Laois have no real chance of extending their run into the semi-finals no matter what happens against Wexford but for defender Joe Higgins the season is only beginning, and the sooner the championship rolls around the better.

Higgins has only played 20 minutes of football with Laois this year, appearing as a substitute in last Sunday's narrow loss against Down. He played again for his club St Joseph's the following day - scoring 1-2 - but other than that was last seen in action back on July 24th.

Since then he's been on a journey of recovery that has taken a few extraordinary twists, but which has left him forever grateful to a car salesman from Laois living in Colorado, the US ski team doctor, and an unknown soul whose donated body part has allowed Higgins to keep playing the game he so loves.

Those present in Croke Park on that Saturday evening in July can no doubt vividly recall the image of Higgins limping off in agony in the closing minutes, just as Laois were about to relinquish their Leinster title to Westmeath. And his worst fears were soon realised when a scan on his left knee revealed the dreaded cruciate ligament tear.

Though only 25, Higgins was already regarded as one of the best defenders in the game, an All Star corner back in 2003 with often astonishing strength and vigour, especially given his size. Suddenly the future of that great talent was jeopardised.

"That was my first feeling alright," says Higgins, "that I might never be the same. The cruciate is one of those injuries you hear about from other people, but you never expect to get yourself. It is still very serious, and years ago there was really no comeback from it."

Eight months later Higgins has no doubt he will soon be back to his old self. He'll start amongst the substitutes again on Sunday but come the summer he fully expects to be again tormenting the best forwards in the country. And here's why.

Higgins had no idea at the time, but also watching that Leinster final last July was avid Laois supporter Seán Doran, originally from Graiguecullen but now working as a car salesman in Colorado. He'd travelled to Denver to watch the match in one of the Irish bars and had witnessed the injury for himself. Straight away he figured he might be able to help.

A woman that gets her car serviced by Doran was also the secretary of Colorado surgeon Dr Eric Verploeg, who resided in Steamboat Springs - better known as Ski town, USA - about three hours northwest of Denver. Doran was also an old friend of Laois selector Declan O'Loughlin, and started putting two and two together.

"A few days later this surgeon rings me himself," explains Higgins. "We spent half an hour talking on the phone, and he explained his procedure. It was a little different, but I'd been told I'd have to wait six or seven weeks to get the operation done in Waterford, and was keen to get the thing done as soon as possible. It was almost a race against time."

He decided to go for it, and travelled all the way to Steamboat along with O'Loughlin. Dr Verploeg was no stranger to such injuries in a town where so many ski accidents make the knee surgery business particularly lucrative. He also works with the American ski team. The operation was done on August 25th, and within days Higgins had regained partial movement in the knee.

Normally the procedure involves removing some of the hamstring ligament, and stitching that into the knee. Dr Verploeg prefers to use pieces of ligament taken from a cadaver - a dead person kind enough to donate various body organs for medical purposes.

The operation was also carried out by epidural and Higgins was able to watch what was going on. They cut up the piece ligament in front of him, and stitched it in using high-tech equipment.

"It means you're getting the exact knee ligament," he says, without flinching. "That means another person's ligament is now in my body, although I don't know who owned it.

"The drawback with the hamstring technique is that that muscle is also weakened, and also needs to be built back up. So I'm a couple of weeks ahead of where I should be.

"And it didn't involve any cast, so I was practically able to move the knee straight away. I only had to walk around on crutches for a few days. So far anyway it's not bothering me at all. In fact I don't even think about the knee. It's only fitness now I'm worried about."

All this came at a considerable cost - but thankfully not to Higgins. The Laois County Board put up 10,000, and O'Loughlin initially came up with the rest. There was also a dog racing night back in January for himself and Beano McDonald (who broke his leg last summer) and that generated around 40,000.

"Hopefully I can repay some of the goodwill," adds Higgins - without mentioning if that includes any organ donation.