How Jimmy Hyland battled back from cruciate ligament surgery to kick ten points in an All-Ireland final

I'm sitting outside waiting for my interview with Jimmy Hyland and I'm greeted by his father Terry.

Instantly, I feel more relaxed. I didn't know much about Jimmy before we met, apart from the fact that he's a precocious talent who lit up the inaugural GAA under-20 championship over the summer. Kicking 10 points in an All-Ireland final is enough to enlarge even the modest of footballers' heads, but a minute talking to Terry and you know that the farmer from Kildare would not let the inevitable fame go to his son's head. To be fair to Jimmy, he's his own man but what strikes you straight away is his humility. It's clear he's from good stock. It's clear the Hyland family is good stock. It has been a whirlwind couple of months for the 20-year-old from Ballyteague. An integral part of the Kildare side that picked up a first All-Ireland win in 53 years, Hyland was majestic en route to glory. He racked up 0-8 against Dublin in the Leinster final, 1-8 against Kerry in the semi-final, and rounded off his underage career with 0-10 in the All-Ireland decider against Mayo, culminating in him becoming the first ever recipient of the 2018 EirGrid U20 Player of the Year. His All-Ireland final performance has been described by many as 'one of the great Croke Park displays', and it isn't hard to see why, he scored eight of his ten from play. Hyland though chooses to play down the narrative, describing the compliments as 'nice'.

"That's nice I suppose," he says as he looks ahead already. "You wouldn’t want to dwell on it too much either, you just want to keep going. But it is nice when you hear things like that I suppose."

However, the Ballyteague man's career could have went in a totally different trajectory following a crippling cruciate tear that forced him out of the game fresh off representing Kildare at minor level.

"The cruciate injury at 18 was tough. It was off the back of that minor campaign when Kerry gave us a good beating. "It was about two weeks later in a minor championship club match, It was probably from over playing I would say myself. I came back in and I played with the seniors in an Intermediate quarter final, we drew that match on a Sunday, and the minor championship was the Tuesday, and I was meant to be back out on the Thursday but I got hurt. "Maybe it was just unfortunate I don’t know (and not from over playing), I got the ball, it wasn't even a big turn, kind of like Jack McCaffrey's in the All-Ireland final, just a slight movement, then a massive pain."

Bernard Brogan showed this year that, with the right mindset and treatment, a cruciate injury doesn't always result in a year or two out of the game. The Dublin legend returned to action only five and a half months after surgery. For Hyland, it took eight and half months.

"I had a month before the surgery where I was doing prehab before the actual operation, then it was eight and a half months from the operation. That was when I had my first game. "I was back on the pitch after about three or four weeks training and easing my way back in to it."

To put this amazing achievement into context, Bernard Brogan was operated on by famed sports surgeon Ray Moran and had Irish international Josh Van Der Flier to bounce back and forth with regards to rehab. Ballyteague couldn't give Jimmy Hyland such luxuries but they did all they could for him. He admits to being worried about his return to form following knee surgery, citing that it took a few months before he felt sharp once again. However, the young star also feels it may have been a blessing in some ways, and that the time spent on the sidelines made him relax and appreciate the game more.

"I did every bit of rehab that I was told to but even when I was doing it you always had doubts in the back of your mind whether you’ll ever get back to the same level again.  "Id say it was two or three months before I felt like I had that sharpness back again. The first game, the first ball I got, I remember jumping into it and I came down on the knee and it was grand, but it just took a while to get the sharpness and turns and stuff like that back. "Before the injury I was kind of feeling a bit of pressure coming out of the minor championship, and it just made me enjoy it a lot more. I was grateful to get back playing, that's how I felt anyway."

Kildare haven't had a corner forward carry this much expectation since the great Johnny Doyle entered the inter-county scene in the late 90s. It's no surprise that Hyland's hero growing up was indeed the legendary Doyle, a man who, as it turns out, he knows quite well.

"I've known him a good four or five years now. He was my hero growing up. Johnny Doyle is an icon. "At underage, we amalgamate with Allenwood which would be Johnny Doyle's team. I think that's a very good idea, it is beneficial to us and the Allenwood lads going forward."

Ballyteague are a small club, and Hyland has been flat out with the senior side since his under-20 exploits. They contested a league final only six days after that win, and have been going every week right up until Sunday past, when they were defeated in the championship quarter final by Monasterevan. For Hyland, he doesn't feel the pressure playing with his club, he admits that coming from such a small club it can be hard to maintain a high standard, and that maybe more is expected of him, but he loves it.

"The lads are probably expecting a bit more from me, but I enjoy going back, it's a bit more relaxed playing with the club," he says. "I played with them the whole way through, there is four or five from my age group that have come onto the senior team so I actually enjoy it. "There are a few older lads that will go in the next couple of years which is probably going to hit us hard, and you can't afford to lose too many as we just don't have the numbers. But all small clubs have this problem."

The focus now for Hyland will be breaking into the Kildare senior side. The youngster got a taste for it this season coming on in most league games, and starting against Galway.

"Well, that's after giving me a little taste so I would be hoping to push on, but there's no guarantees. "I'm going to have to work hard and see what happens, there would be guarantees but that would be my ambition.

"It was a very strange season, it started off reasonable in the league, I know we didn't get a win, and when you don't it's very hard to turn things around. We didn't play bad, I know you can't always say we were unfortunate, but we were a little bit in the first couple games."

Things got worse though for Kildare when championship came around. A shock defeat against Carlow will probably go down as the lowest point in their history.

"Going into the Carlow game, we were very positive, but when they beat us it was looking very bleak. I was in the stands with a few of the lads, and had travelled on the team bus. That was a very dark day, fair play to Carlow though, they deserved to win.

Whilst the Carlow defeat may have been the lowest point in their history, what followed will go down as one of the most memorable events to happen in Kildare football. The 'Newbridge or Nowehere' scandal engrossed the country when the Lilywhites turned over Mayo after a stand off with the GAA over their decision to try move the game to Croke Park.

"That was a great week," Hyland reflects fondly. "I've never seen an atmosphere like it in Newbridge before. I was travelling with the team then went into the stands, it was madness."

For now, senior football is the future for Hyland. When he looks back though on an underage career that ended with the highest of the highs, how does he reflect on their achievement?

"It was 53 years since the last All-Ireland. When I actually sat down and thought about that, it's completely mad, how long that was. "Hopefully it gives the other underage teams coming up after us the confidence that they can do the same thing, that’s what I would be hoping is to come out of it."

In times of great success, Jimmy Hyland's only concern is that he can inspire the young people of Kildare to follow suit. It is hard to imagine a 20-year-old thinking this way after scoring 0-10 in an All-Ireland final and winning Player of the Year. Then again, if you had met Terry Hyland, you would understand why his son thinks this way too.