Liam Doyle celebrates after scoring Down’s third goal in the the drawn Ulster final against Tyrone in 2003

IT WAS in the Royal Hospital in Belfast back in 2008 when Liam Doyle’s injury hell reached its nadir.

Lying in the hospital bed, he looked down at his legs and surveyed the damage. His left knee was still recovering from a cruciate injury picked up in the Ulster Championship loss to Armagh when he developed septicemia in the same joint. Glancing right, he’d look at a knee that was suffering badly from tendonitis. Doyle watched the muscle definition disappear in his legs as he lay up day after day waiting for the infection to clear.

At 27 years of age, he knew that he was facing into an arduous recovery period. If he was just a few years older, he knows that there may not have even been time for that battle – one that would take all of two years to win.

“I had the cruciate injury and in rehab I picked up septicemia in the knee, blood poisoning, and that set it back as I had to spend a few weeks in the Royal.

“There was no long-term impact and eventually it did get right. I had tendonitis in the other knee and I would say that held me back further rather than the cruciate itself.

“It wasn’t easy sitting there in the hospital. Because I was sitting there for such a long period, I could see the muscles in my leg wasting away because I hadn’t been using them much because of the operation.

If you were half fit you were fit to play and that wouldn’t have helped with the tendonitis in the other knee.

“Looking back now maybe it wasn’t the wisest thing, but I wouldn’t have been one to shy away. I would have put my hand up and said I was good to go. I’ve probably paid the price for that.

“I was only 27 when I was in hospital and I felt I had a few more years in me. If I had been in the 30s or whatever I maybe would have been advised to knock it on the head after that cruciate though.”

Niall McCoy’s full two-page feature with former Down star Liam Doyle is in stores today or online here.