For Barnsley defender Conor McCarthy, it was different. He had circled the date of September 5 in his diary for some time.
His team’s appointment with Grimsby Town at Oakwell represented the red-letter day when life would truly start to get back to normal again. Doing the day job that he is paid for.
To the uninitiated, the Irishman underwent knee surgery last autumn after rupturing his ACL in the home game with Charlton Athletic on September 24, 2022.
Some 345 days later, McCarthy reached the end of his long road and had closure when he stepped out in the colours of Barnsley on a first-team match-day. He is now finally able to turn the page and pen a new chapter.
On whether he’d counted down the days, McCarthy said: “Quite a long time… I had a bit of a countdown on my phone. It was 345 days since my last competitive game.
“It was always my burning ambition (to play on Tuesday). I had a daily reminder and it was something to look forward to.
“The old manager, Michael Duff, was excellent with me and I couldn’t pay him enough credit. Everyone knows that he dealt with similar injuries throughout his career and it was about compartmentalising things and dealing with it during my rehab.
“It was the ‘small wins’, going from walking to jogging to running. Touching the ball, sprinting and changing direction – they are all the small wins.
“Ultimately, it was playing in the (under) 23s, with 45, 60 and 90 minutes and then ultimately getting back in the first team.
“It’s been a long road and something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. At the same time, it has taught me a lot of things about myself. I wouldn’t say I am grateful for the injury, but it has taught me things.”
Fortunately, McCarthy was blessed with the emotional intelligence and sense of perspective to cope with his near year-long absence better than most.
Alongside his rehabilitation work, he has used some spare time available to start a Masters degree in commerce after graduating in economics from University College Cork (UCC) in 2020. He is now half-way through it.
But it has still been undeniably hard at times and bad days have arrived.
Tuesday and Wednesday will have been good days.
A ‘good sore’ was how he was expecting to feel after his exertions against Grimsby, with the gloss on the night arriving by being handed the captain’s armband by Neill Collins – and leading the Reds to a 2-0 win.
