Damien Comer and Galway primed to deliver on their potential

Damien Comer read an interview recently with TJ Reid, who said he could still be playing with Kilkenny at the age of 40.

“I can guarantee you I won’t be anyway,” said powerful Galway footballer Comer, just 31 but bedevilled by injuries since his mid 20s.

The good news is that Comer reckons he should be available for Sunday’s Connacht SFC semi-final clash with Roscommon despite missing the quarter-final win over New York.

Comer travelled out to the US with the squad but didn’t tog out, figuring his battered limbs wouldn’t thank him for an hour or more on Gaelic Park’s unforgiving artificial surface.

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“I trained and played on it [artificial grass] before down in Bekan and it took me a while to recover from it,” said Comer. “It was probably a risk that wasn’t worth taking.”

The bad news is the mental toll that injuries and long stretches of rehab have taken on the schoolteacher. The groin was the principal offender earlier this year. Last year it was the hamstring. Prior to that his knees were the pressing issue.

“It’s just mentally challenging more than anything,” said Comer who was speaking at the launch of the 2025 Kellogg’s GAA Cúl Camps. “For me, you don’t know what’s coming down the line.”

The big full forward traces most of his problems back to the serious ankle injury he sustained while playing soccer on St Stephen’s Day in 2018. He suffered torn ligaments and a fracture at the time, requiring surgery which limited him to 20 minutes of action in 2019.

Clearly, the injuries suffered since have been different ones but Comer draws a straight line between that ankle setback and everything which has happened since.

“I’d say it’s all from the ankle, to be honest, an imbalance,” he said. “I used to not pick up any injuries before I hurt the ankle but since then it’s had a knock-on effect. It affects your running mechanics and what not when you don’t have the same mobility or power coming off your ankle. So an imbalance is there.”

Asked when he last felt injury-free, fully fit and firing on all cylinders, Comer pointed to 2022, when he won his All Star.

“2023 wasn’t great and last year . . . last year was terrible altogether,” he said. “So yeah, it’s probably going back to 2022. The last couple of years have been the worst by a mile.”

Despite missing the New York game, more a precautionary move, Comer is optimistic about his lot.

Galway’s Damien Comer celebrates scoring a goal against Dublin at Croke Park. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

“I’ve put a lot of work into it now, so hopefully it’s behind me,” he said of the perceived ankle imbalance.

If he can maintain fitness, he is a player that could drive Galway to not just victory over Roscommon or even Connacht success but the All-Ireland title the county craves.

Comer underlined just how talented and effective he is when launching his latest return from injury last month against Dublin in the league clash at Croke Park.

He came on with about 25 minutes to go for his seasonal debut, struck 1-2 and pretty much tortured experienced Dublin defender David Byrne. In that brief period, Comer got three shots away at goal, hitting the net with one, firing another just over and dragging the other wide.

He also used his formidable hulking frame to win two advanced marks, one of which he converted himself and another which led to John Maher’s deflected goal.

“It was probably my first time playing since the All-Ireland last year,” said Comer. “I probably felt like I wouldn’t have played near my potential in any of the games last year, in the quarter-final, the semi or the final.

“Obviously there was the lack of work I was able to put in at the time but expectations were high, even though my base was low. So there was a bit of all of that coming out [against Dublin]. And it was also just being back out in Croker again, trying to show what you can do with a bit of work behind you.”

There was a similarly explosive display of his full potential against Mayo last year in the Connacht championship. More pertinently, with this weekend’s trip to Hyde Park in mind, Comer tore Roscommon asunder on his visit there in 2023.

Lee Keegan was on punditry duties that day and named Roscommon’s Ciaran Murtagh as his man of the match. Afterwards, Keegan took to social media to apologise to Comer, acknowledging he should have got the gong instead. Comer smiled at the memory.

“It doesn’t really matter,” he said of being overlooked for the trophy. “As my granny used to say, dust collectors is all they are!”

Comer isn’t the only prominent Galway player with a chequered injury history as Shane Walsh missed the New York game too.

“He picked up a knock at training, just a bang, he’ll be fine,” said Comer.

Another key player, Seán Kelly, has had his problems as well, while Rob Finnerty had to limp out of last year’s All-Ireland final after a matter of minutes..

“If we could get a clean bill of health and try to get everyone back on the pitch and training together, yeah, we’ve a serious squad,” said Comer. “From one to 30, we’ve a very good squad overall there so it’s just getting bodies on the pitch and making sure everyone’s right.”