‘My Love For The Game Is At An All-Time High’ – O’Leary

The road to recovery after double knee surgery is a lonely one. Endless rehab sessions, quiet gym floors, and moments of doubt that can gnaw at even the strongest.

But for Maeve Óg O’Leary, it became something more. A journey not just back to rugby, but back to herself. Nine months after her return to action, she is once again thriving in a Blackrock College RFC jersey, her love for the game renewed and her spirit unbroken.

Her focus is now firmly on the future, but it is impossible not to reflect on just how far she has come. From sitting in the recovery room and going to physio wondering if she would ever play again, to rediscovering her joy at Blackrock and captaining Munster.

A warrior in every sense, O’Leary’s story is one that shines a light on the resilience behind every athlete’s comeback.

“It was quite a long year. It felt like more than a year, I swear, by the time I got back,” she admitted, speaking to IrishRugby.ie about a period that tested her both physically and emotionally.

“The way to put it is like it was a very interesting time. It was quite a rollercoaster for me. I got injured in a club game and it was right around the time of the Six Nations (last year), which I was trying to push myself to be in for.

“I was a training panellist that year, so I was kind of already on just on the fringes of that squad, which I would have loved to have been included in.

“I returned back to my club to try and get some minutes under my belt and really push for that. I was actually already managing a knee injury on my left knee. And that game was where I went and really hurt my right knee. I was devastated at the time.

“When anyone goes into that rehab stage, you really just step back and you allow your first couple of weeks, your first couple of days, to really work through that emotion and that disappointment.”

It was not her first senior injury. She had missed Ireland’s 2022 summer tour to Japan due to a hamstring tear, but this one was different. A long-term injury with no clear timeframe, no date circled for a return. Just a daunting unknown.

“When I did my hamstring, it was my first big injury that I had, and I was given a timeframe of eight to ten weeks. At the time, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s so long’. I missed that Japan tour, I was allowed to kind of step away from everything.

“I went down to Kerry, my family were in Kerry for the week. So, I went down and just kind of decompressed, and then I was so hyper focused on just getting back.

“It felt like a fairly straightforward road. Whereas with my knees, it was a much larger issue. And I really didn’t have a timeframe. Eventually I did go to surgery. Compared to an ACL or something, they were much smaller surgeries. But the timeframe was kind of unknown.

“I think that’s probably what made it that bit harder. That unknowingness and really not knowing when or I suppose at times if I would return. But I’m so grateful to be back now.

“I think any athlete who’s been injured for that long, when you step on the field, every time you’re like, ‘I’m just going to enjoy this as much as I can’.

“There was definitely a time where I was probably a little bit catastrophic thinking, ‘Oh my God, my dreams here are kind of over and I don’t know when I’ll get back’.”

Those months off the pitch gave her a new perspective. The silence away from competition allowed reflection on her career, her mindset, and what rugby truly meant to her. Through slow, deliberate progress and the belief that she could still find her way back, she began to rebuild.

The Tipperary native explained: “The year for me, it really allowed me time to kind of reflect on what felt like a whirlwind of like five or six years of my career.

“Just like from starting rugby, moving up to Dublin, getting my first caps with Munster and Ireland and then getting contracted. I hadn’t had a break that allowed me to reflect on all that.

“It showed as well that I definitely needed to look at the mental side of the game and my mental fitness. When I did get back on pitch, it was very fitting and definitely the right place for me to return was Blackrock.

“It’s probably the place where I really learned most of my rugby, and it’s where I enjoyed most of my rugby.”

Returning to Blackrock meant more than simply finding fitness again. It meant reconnecting with her roots in the game. It is the club she joined when she first moved to Dublin in 2018, where she evolved from a centre into a commanding back rower.

Having started to play rugby at the age of 15, O’Leary was lining out for both Munster and Ireland by 21. But in truth, it was at Blackrock where she found herself as both a player and a person.

“I wasn’t probably in the best relationship with the game at the time. So to return with Blackrock was really special,” she acknowledged, referring to her first match back from those two knee surgeries – ‘Rock’s 41-29 win at home to Wicklow last March.

“It was the peak of my enjoyment in my game, and it was just special to do it alongside some of the players that I’m closest with. It was a very big learning of a year, but I’m definitely better for it. Very grateful for everyone that helped me out during the time.

“I kind of couldn’t believe that I was eventually going to be back. Once the game day actually comes around, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I actually forgot what it feels like to go through a game day again’. You’re kind of hit with those nerves.

“That bit of pressure that we all would put on ourselves before going out into the pitch. It was nice. I was given 30 minutes on my first game back from the physio, so it wasn’t as though I was expected to go out and do an 80-minute block and be blowing and blacking out early on the pitch.

“I was given a nice kind of lead in. It felt very special, just to be back on the field, my dad came up from Tipp and came to watch it and the girls had flowers and all.

“Tash (Natasja Behan), who actually returned in our last game (against Old Belvedere), she had flowers for me in the dressing room, even though she had just undergone her own sort of ACL surgery.

“It was very special and honestly, it just felt very normal to be back again. You wouldn’t miss the match day nerves now and all that kind of stuff that you’d be putting on. In ‘Rock, I couldn’t have done it in a better place.

“I feel like no one understands me better as a rugby player than the people or my team-mates in ‘Rock, because they’ve seen me go from a centre to a back row, up through all my first caps and all like that. It was brilliant.”

The comeback did not just end with her return to Energia All-Ireland League action. Months later, she was back in red, memorably captaining Munster to the Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship title. The enormity of that turnaround is not lost on her.

“It’s been unreal. I think the Interpros season this year honestly felt like a bit of a dream,” reflected O’Leary, who works as a Senior Account Executive with PR and communications agency Wilson Hartnell.

“I kind of went into it saying, ‘Oh yeah, no pressure here. Let’s just get back in the Munster shirt first and let’s see how the knees kind of hold up because I’m still managing them’. Then obviously to be asked to lead the team, I kind of couldn’t believe it.

“If you said to me a year prior, you’ll be leading out Munster, I would not have believed you. And I think I feel such immense pride when I put on the Munster jersey anyway. I just always have, there’s like this freedom and fight that it lights up in me.

“After ‘Rock, there was no better place to be returning and channelling that enjoyment. My love for the game now is definitely at an all-time high.

“I couldn’t be happier now to be back in ‘Rock. Every time I go out and play a game, what I’m thinking about is how much enjoyment I’m getting out of it.”

That joy radiates through her performances. Just a month back from the injury, she was helping Blackrock to push for a final place last season. In recent weeks, she has found her rhythm again, including crossing the line for her first try at club level since November 2022.

It is the kind of moment that captures what she has been through, a simple act that carries so much meaning.

“That is mental. That’s a great stat now,” she laughs. “I wasn’t even aware of that. I’m delighted with that now. As a back row, you kind of don’t think about scoring. I just want to make big hits and make line breaks.

“I ended up running about 30 metres (to score against Old Belvedere). I’m a forward, so obviously there’s going to be a few players on the pitch that are a bit faster than me. I was just running for my life!

“I was delighted because it was the third try in the match, just before half-time, which put us in a nice spot going into that half, going into the dressing room. But like, it was so nice, it’s a great feeling scoring tries. I’ll never say no to a try anyway.”

Moments like that matter again, not for the statistics, but for the satisfaction of simply being there. Of being part of it. After everything, that is what she plays for now.

As she runs out in Blackrock’s famous blue and white colours, she carries not just the scars of injury, but every carry, every tackle, every game is a reminder that she is not just back – she came through adversity with a smile back on her face.

O’Leary has already featured in both of Blackrock’s Energia All-Ireland League games this season, a tough loss to UL Bohemian followed by a 27-7 bonus point victory away to Old Belvedere.

The five-times capped Ireland international is eager to see Niall Neville’s side continue to build momentum when they visit Railway Union, last season’s beaten finalists, in the third round this Saturday (kick-off 4pm).

“The start of the season is one of those times, everyone knows you’re going to have to blow off the cobwebs, but it’s also a time where you can get a little bit of a head start and get those four or five points up on the table, which often matter at the end of the season.

“I think overall we were probably content walking away from the first game knowing that we’d so much more in the tank, and then it was very important to go out and have a good performance against ‘Belvo.

“I think that it can go both ways. Every team will have time to develop and carry on and get better throughout the season, but we’ll definitely be looking to come away with some points from the Railway game.

“No one knows better than ourselves, going to play Railway on their home pitch as well, it’s always a bit of an awkward battle.

“But we definitely look forward to the contest and there’s been two really good battles with ‘Belvo and UL Bohs so far. So I think we’ve taken plenty from them, and we’ll take them into the Railway game,” she added.

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