By John Harrington

When Jack McCarron starts talking you through the run of injuries that side-lined him for the best part of four years, you find yourself shaking your head with a mixture of disbelief and sympathy.

First there was the shoulder injury that required surgery, followed by the ruptured cruciate, the succession of hamstring injuries, and then the ankle injury that also required surgery.

In between those milestones was the constant drudgery of rehab that tested the Monaghan footballer’s mental resolve almost as much as the injuries themselves did.

“Yeah, it massively frustrating,” admits the 25-year-old. “Very frustrating. I was starting to consider was there something I doing something totally wrong.

“I just had to be mentally right. Obviously when you're playing GAA all you want to do is play, so you just keep the head down and tramp away at it and hope you can get back.

“It takes a wee while to get over the initial phase (of an injury). But once you give a couple of days getting over the initial phase then you can get on with the training and try to get back after the rehab and get everything right.

“It was frustrating, but if Monaghan weren't going as well you might have slacked off with the rehab. When they're going well you just want to play with them and it gives you the appetite to get back as well.

“The physios that I was working with in Monaghan and Ryan Porter our strength and conditioning coach were brilliant.

“They worked closely together and put a bit more emphasis on myself and different movements and my running mechanics. Hopefully I've gotten through it now, touch-wood.”

He certainly looked like a player in tip-top physical and mental shape in the Allianz League this year for Monaghan.

He scored 3-29 in five matches, including a haul of 1-9 against All-Ireland Champions Dublin in the last game of the campaign.

The quality of his performances were incredible considering how little football he’s played in recent times, and even McCarron was pleasantly surprised by the extent to which he hit the ground running.

“Yeah, I was,” he admits. “I suppose I was getting on the end of more of the moves than the rest of the lads. They were handing me the ball and I was getting it over the bar.

“Conor (McManus) laid off a few balls to me as well. He was more of a playmaker there for a wee while. It was nice to be playing alongside him as well.

“The main focus was just on getting back, playing football, getting a consistent run of games. It's been a number of years since I've gotten a number of games under my belt.

“I'd always go back into training and then something else would set me back so it was just great to get a number of League games under my belt. That was the main aim, to get back out on the field playing games.”

The injuries held him back for a few years, but McCarron was always destined to be a Monaghan footballer.

It’s in the blood, you see. His father Ray was a stalwart for Farney County in the ‘80s and ‘90s, winning two Ulster titles, one National League and an All-Star along the way.

While his mother Patricia is a sister of Hugo Clerkin, himself a Monaghan football legend.

Hugo’s son Dick Clerkin played for 17 years for Monaghan, winning two Ulster titles himself, so McCarron certainly didn’t lack for role-models in his family.

“Definitely so,” he says. “Even just seeing video clips of my uncle Hugo and my Dad playing with Monaghan, I just wanted to emulate them.

“My Dad would have been very laid back. He didn't put any pressure on me whatsoever on me, he just let me do whatever I wanted and didn't really say too much even after games or anything, he was very supportive that way.

“Dick would have been a very big influence. I suppose when I first came onto the Monaghan panel he was established there and would have been a great help.

“I suppose the likes of himself, Eoin Lennon, Paul Finlay, and Vinny Corey, with the way they conducted themselves in training.

“When I got onto the panel it showed me and all the young boys on the panel how hard you had to work. Their no-nonsense attitude to training really showed through in that Monaghan team.”

If McCarron keeps playing like he is then by the time he hangs up his boots he could be regarded as a Monaghan legend in his own right.

Not surprisingly, he’s not looking that far ahead. When you’ve had as many injuries as he’s had, then it’s all about taking it one game at a time and simply enjoying football again.

“Yeah, I just want to keep injury free hopefully, keep ticking over,” he says.

“It's been massively enjoyable. I've been sitting there for the past number of years and it's just great to be back out on the field playing.”

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