Copyright irishexaminer
Defender Byrne, 31, missed the 2024 season as he took a year out to travel to Australia and, he revealed, he underwent ACL surgery while there. The eight-time All-Ireland winner initially suffered the cruciate tear in 2022 but played on without surgery for a period, collecting another All-Ireland medal in 2023. It was looked upon as something of a test case, to see if it was possible for an elite player to continue to operate without surgery after an ACL rupture. "I played a year and a half of successful inter-county football and then when I landed in Australia, two weeks in, and my knee absolutely buckled on me and I ended up having to get surgery on it," said the Naomh Olafs man. "It turned out I can do a year and a half of inter-county football without surgery - but not a five-a-side game of astro football over in Australia!" Was it the right thing to do, looking back? "I think for me it was all about the timing of the injury, when it presented itself, and giving it a go without getting the surgery," responded the 2012 All-Ireland winning minor captain. "I got that year and a half of inter-county football out of it, which was great. "And at the time, I was like, 'Yeah, I definitely won't need surgery on it'. And then I just had the incident with the knee and had to go and get it tidied up." Ultimately, he probably would have missed out on the 2023 All-Ireland win if he'd got the surgery in 2022. Or wouldn't have played such a leading role at least? "Yeah, definitely, yeah," nodded Byrne. "I injured it in '22 and I came back in that Championship. I played against Cork and Kerry and then the following year I played without surgery and we won it that year. I would have played pretty much almost every minute. "It's funny, with no surgery I was back playing within I think it was eight weeks, 10 weeks. Then, after surgery, it was almost a full 12 months until I was back playing. It was a bit tedious getting it right but I eventually got there."
