After a long road, Emer Gallagher is ready for the 100 club

Almost eleven months on, Emer Gallagher is ready to join Donegal’s elite century club.

Donegal face Waterford in their TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC game on Saturday in Birr.

Gallagher may not be thrown straight into combat but at least now - after the long rehabilitation road - the Donegal ace can finally say she’s available. At times, the 100th game felt miles off. Now, though, it’s close enough to feel possible.

During the closing stages of a Championship tussle against Kerry in Tuam, Gallagher hurt her knee. That date, July 24, is rooted firmly on her mind.

“I knew immediately it was something bad,” she tells Donegal Live.

“There was a bit of confusion though, because ten minutes after it I had no ill effects.

“I felt like I had just been dramatic! I even said to Tommy Kerr: ‘It’s actually fine.’ There was no swelling. no pain. The physios even did a test on me and I passed.

“I had to wait for a few days for a scan. At training that Tuesday, I did some cycling and my own work at pitch side. Everyone thought I would be back for the Dublin game.”

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The 2-13 to 2-9 win over the Kingdom confirmed Donegal’s place in an All-Ireland quarter-final.

Dublin lay in wait. For Gallagher, it should have been a milestone.

The Kerry game marked her 99th appearance in a Donegal senior shirt.

That week, the newspapers beamed that her 100th was imminent. It has been a long wait. Now, she feels poised to join Yvonne Bonner, Karen Guthrie, Geraldine McLaughlin, Nicole McLaughlin, Niamh Hegarty and Katy Herron in passing a century of games for the county.

“It has felt like a long time,” she says. “Last year, I missed the Dublin game and the Ulster final. I missed the League and the Ulster final this year. It kind of feels as if I have been out for two seasons.

“In terms of my ACL rehab, I haven’t had any major set-backs, thank God. I’m just trying now to keep the muscles in tune. I don’t have the same conditioning as the rest of the girls. On the hard pitches now I feel it after every session, but I’ll just keep building.

“I’ve been back fully for about two weeks now. I eased myself in with loads of straight-line running and pitch side running.”

After having her knee scanned, Gallagher wondered of the medics: “Do you think I’ll be able to play in the Dublin match?”

Reality soon dawned.

She watched from the sideline as Donegal - also minus Niamh Carr, due to Covid-19 - lost 2-12 to 2-7 in Carrick-on-Shannon.

This year, Gallagher has moonlighted as an impressive pundit on TG4. A depth of knowledge, insight and a clarity of delivery certainly suggests a future behind the mic.

She turns just 28 on Thursday and has plenty more to give,

An Ulster minor winner with Donegal in 2010, she was drafted into the Donegal senior squad by then manager Eamon O’Boyle in 2011.

“Donegal won the All-Ireland Intermediate the year before and I hadn’t a notion what I was going into,” she says. “I was only 16 at the time so it was brilliant. I was obviously delighted to get the call up.”

This is her 12th season in the green and gold. The Churchill woman has only recently paused to reflect.

“In a strange way, sitting back and watching things going on has given me a new appreciation,” she says. “Probably the thing I’ve noticed more than anything is that I’ve felt the value of being a part of a team.”

On the down days, the likes of Termon club-mates and Donegal colleagues Geraldine and Nicole McLaughlin, Roisin McCafferty, Evelyn McGinley and Jodie McFadden have offered the pick-me-ups.

“I’m so glad to have had those friendships,” she says, “It has been fantastic to see the girls going to the levels they’ve reached. It’s been amazing to be a part of it.

“For a while, I was there, but didn’t really feel a part of it. I was really eager to get back on the pitch with the girls. I feel like I’m back involved again.

“I was always getting good professional advice from the physios, who have seen it all. If I could have got away with it, I’\d have been back in.”

Shane McClean and Paul Fisher at Donegal Physio have bene central to her recovery.

“It’s such a short season I just wasn’t willing to miss it all,” Gallagher says.

“I’d love to be involved in some way now.

“Shane and Paul have been realistic and reminded me about why not to go back too early.”

Roisin McCafferty is a trained physio and has been on hand with nuggets of advice. Donegal captain Niamh McLaughlin suffered cruciate agony three times and is also working as a physio.

Niamh has been amazing,” Gallagher says. “The best part about Niamh is that she’s done her ACL three times - and look at the player she is. She put so much time into her recovery, even today.

“This is a commitment for my playing career that I’ll have to do more work to keep my knee safe and Niamh is a shining example of that. She is always so forthcoming with good advice. She’s straight to the point too, which is good.

“It has been good to feel like I was accountable to someone else. I felt that that was huge and that’s why I wanted to link in with Paul early on. I was lucky that it was a clean rupture and didn’t damage anything else.”

Within a month she was under the knife of Dr Ray Moran at the Santry Sports Clinic and the road to recovery was underway.

Her boyfriend, the Gaeil Fhánada player Seamus ‘Nanny’ Friel, also had fairly recent experience of an ACL injury.

“Seamie kept me grounded,” Gallagher says. “Any time I was feeling sorry for myself, or if I felt I wasn’t doing well or should be doing better, he was able to bring me to earth. It was great to have Seamie to bounce things off.”

Since breaking onto the senior ranks, Gallagher has been a consistent rock on successive Donegal sides.

Barring the summer of 2016, when she was in Chicago, she has maintained a presence, winning Ulster SFC titles in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019. This year, Donegal reached the Division 1 final, but were pipped by Meath at Croke Park.

The signs again are promising - and Gallagher is ready to be a part of it all again.