From the All Blacks to Rosses Park - all in a day’s work for Darren Curran

When it comes to going the extra mile for his club on and off the field, Dungloe midfielder Darren Curran can always be relied upon.

He is the oldest of three brothers in the team - Barry and Mark are the others - that will face Naomh Columba in Saturday’s Donegal IFC final. Curran never misses a game and you would have fingers left over if you were counting on one hand the amount of games he has been absent for over the last few seasons, mainly due to injury, despite his years as a student at IT Sligo and at university in Sheffield.

One example of his commitment levels was the fact that for Dungloe's first championship game in Burt this season, he flew in from Birmingham where he was working at the Commonwealth Games and flew back to resume his duties attending and treating some of the world’s leading athletes. Curran is a physiotherapist by profession and is attached to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

But he is also building up a reputation in sports physiotherapy and has also worked with the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, the Argentenian rugby side and the New Zealand cricketers.

“My full-time position is in the Royal Victoria here in Belfast and the sports work I do is extra work,” Curran said. “For the Commonwealth Games, I took annual leave and with the rugby teams and the New Zealand cricketers they were fitted in around my time off too.

“I was with the All Blacks and the Argentinians when they were here on their Autumn tours last year. It was a great experience being among a professional team and their setup. To get to work with the All-Blacks, the best team in the world was brilliant and a great experience.

“The All Blacks were really nice. There was a bit of a language barrier with the Argentinians but they were friendly too. The All Blacks were very interested and asked me about Gaelic football. The one thing I picked up from the New Zealanders - both the All Blacks and the cricket team - is that they're all very humble and everybody is treated the same.

“There are no superstars and no pedestal. They are all equal from the manager right through the players to the kitman.”
Curran returns home at weekends for games or training and he also trains on his own in Belfast. And since the start of the championship he has been meeting once a week with the rest of the squad for a collective session.

“All of the players away from home receive a training programme every couple of days and sometimes every day on WhatsApp,” he said. “If the lads at home are having a training session we will receive a copy of the session to do on our own. So whatever the boys are doing at home we are doing the same thing.

“We then all meet up for a collective session on a Wednesday or a Thursday night depending when games are on, at a central location. It is all very well organised and professional but that is what you have to do if you want to compete.”

Since back in August and the start of the championship, the entire Dungloe squad have been meeting up once a week in Omagh.

“We’ve had a good run to the final and we are all enjoying winning games and looking forward to the final,” Curran added. “We have a clean bill of health and we are really looking forward to Saturday. We want to win because our main goal is to get back playing senior championship football again. That is what is driving us.”