WHEN CIARAN COLL lay in agony on a stretcher at the end of last month’s game against Dundalk, he couldn’t but fear the worst.
The sound, the sight and the feeling were all too familiar and the haunting memories of a game against Limerick FC in 2009 flooded through his mind.
As he lay in the medical room, deep in Oriel’s bowels, Coll had oxygen administered.
For everyone, the signs pointed to that injury that sends shivers through sportspeople.
Coll missed the bulk of the 2010 season after injuring the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in his left knee against Limerick at the end of the previous campaign.
A routine x-ray at Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, as imagined, showed that he’d broken nothing and an MRI scan in Ballykelly was to confirm the nightmare again.
Only they didn’t.
“When Colm O’Neill, the physio, rang and said that he had good news, I didn’t want to hear anything else – it was just so good to hear that it wasn’t the cruciate,” Coll says now.
“It was just a massive relief.
“I couldn’t even go up the stairs when I got home. I had to sleep downstairs that night and I couldn’t straighten the leg for 24 or 48 hours. I was so nervous waiting on the news from the physios.
“Everything pointed to the cruciate and it was still sore when I got the call. That was the day of the Shamrock Rovers game, but I was back playing a few days later in Sligo.”
It had all happened so innocuously, too.
Coll was retreating towards his own goal when he fell to the floor, with neither opponent or team-mate within five yards.
He says: “I was slowing down and the leg just gave way.
“The cruciate was the first thing that came into my head. When I went down, the knee locked and my head just went blank. The cruciate was just all I could think of. I tried to get up, but there was no way the knee would let me get up – that’s when the stretcher came on.”
During his recuperation from his last cruciate injury, James Gallagher was the Finn Harps manager and Ollie Horgan was the manager of Fanad United. Coll was in the Fisherman’s Inn in St Johnston watching Manchester United play Liverpool when his phone buzzed.
Horgan heard of his set-back and called with a few words of advice. Coll didn’t know Horgan too well, but it was a phonecall that increased his admiration for a man who’d become his manager just four years later.
“Ollie said he’d done his own cruciate twice and he was telling about a load of players who had done theirs – he gave me a couple of phone numbers and was very helpful himself,” says Coll.
“I hardly knew him at that stage, but it was a nice phone call to get.”
Coll’s talents have always been obvious to those who watched him as a youngster with Kildrum Tigers.
His displays in the red and black verticals attracted interest from Heart of Midlothian, who snapped him up in 2007. He stayed a season at Tynecastle before signing for Harps ahead of the 2009 season.
With Harps having just been relegated to the First Division, Coll was part of the restructuring process at Finn Park.
It’s taken until now for Harps’ return to the top flight and Coll wasn’t without his admirers in recent seasons with Derry City, Coleraine and Sligo Rovers known to have been keen.
He stayed at Harps, though, and he now, in the absence of club captain Kevin McHugh from the starting XI, wears the captain’s armband.
“A massive honour,” he says.
“I remember when my daddy (Packie) was playing for Kildrum, Kevin would pull up in the car at times and you could always see what people thought of Kevin and how high they rated him.
“Now, I get a lift to training with him. He’s someone everyone in the dressing room looks up to.
“But it’s great to get the chance to captain Harps. The feeling is unreal…leading the team out, down the steps, seeing the excitement on the wee mascots’ faces, hearing the drum, listening to the crowd and seeing the flags…it’s a special place Finn Park on big nights.”
Harps have seven points from a possible 21 so far; their start hasn’t been too shabby at all, the wins over Derry City and Longford Town supplemented by an away draw at Sligo.
“It’s a bigger step up than you’d imagine,” Coll says.
“It’s more than a step up from the First Division to the Premier. It’s a hard step, but we’re just trying to grind out enough points to stay up. We’ve been doing okay so far, but we know what’s ahead of us.
“But as footballers, you have to go in and enjoy these games. There’s no point in being a footballer if you don’t enjoy these sorts of games. Even in training now, there’s enjoyment.
“Every time we go into training or a match now, we just go out to do a job. If everyone does that, we’ve got more of a chance of getting something when the game comes around.
“It’s going to be a battle, but we’re up for it – and we have to make Finn Park a fortress. Teams already don’t like making the trip to Ballybofey so we have to make sure it’s not enjoyable for them playing either.
“Finn Park is our home – we can’t let someone walk all over us here.”
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