Few footballers in the country are better versed in the ways of lost time than David Moran. The Kerry midfielder made his intercounty debut in 2008, yet the years since then have been so pockmarked by injury he has only two championship starts to his name.
Back-to-back ruptured cruciates followed almost immediately by a torn retina meant the best part of three full years evaporated on him between the ages of 22 and 25.
So when he pulls out a display like he did against Tyrone on Sunday, there is a slight temptation to wonder at what might have been.
Though James O’Donoghue finished his day with 3-3 against his name and Bryan Sheehan kicked a handful of sumptuous frees, it was Moran who was called over to the sideline by the TG4 lads at the end.
Forceful, mobile and clever on the ball, he and Anthony Maher had completely wiped out the Tyrone midfield to give the Kerry forwards the amount of ball needed to streak off into the distance.
Far from lamenting
And actually, far from lamenting about time passed, Moran is more of a mind to enjoy what is here and what is to come.
“I definitely appreciate it more,” he says. “When you’re growing up, you just think that your career is taken away from you in your 30s. And even Gooch at the moment, it’s the same for him.
“It just shows that it can be taken away from you any moment. So I suppose I’m out there now enjoying it, appreciating it and I know that whatever I’m doing it’s much better than two years ago when I was just doing rehab sessions or I was laid up and in a lot of pain.
“It’s just great to be out there. Winning makes it even more special. When you’re doing rehab, it’s a lonely spot. You go from meeting your friends three or four days a week, having the craic to complete isolation.
“And that’s nothing against the lads or Kerry or the club or anything – it’s just the nature of rehab. You have to do the hard work and a lot of it is on your own.”
Mention of Colm Cooper was a reminder that Kerry's season is different this year to any other for a decade and more.
Beating Tyrone by 15 points was timely confirmation they can and will have to compete against the top teams without their best player. No harm to be assured that they can win without him.
Moran gave Cooper his space when he heard about the injury, knowing better than anyone the level of well-meaning crowding that can happen to someone in his predicament.
He texted to say he was there if ever Cooper needed any bit of sat-navving through the months ahead – nobody in the Kerry panel knows the road better, after all.
Of more immediate importance is that they carry on where they left off in Killarney on Sunday.
Their first win is on the board but they still have some climbing to do to get out of the relegation mire. Moran concedes each of them have to be better if they’re to prosper without Cooper.
“Yeah, look that’s all we can do. It’s Gooch, like – you’re not going to replace him. We have to try and come together as a team and get better.
“We still believe we’re good enough to win an All-Ireland. We have to, otherwise we’re wasting our time. Obviously he’s a huge loss but there’s no point in us going out in training trying to make the next Gooch. We all have to raise that next five per cent and hopefully that will be enough.
"It hasn't been overdone. It's like anything – we just have to get on with it. If we keep bringing it up, it might come as an excuse, which we don't want. We're all training too hard for excuses.
Massive role
"He'll still play a massive role off the pitch. Someone like that, you just hang off every word.
“We haven’t underplayed it, we haven’t overplayed it. We were all obviously very disappointed, it’s almost a grieving process.
“But at the end of the day, you have to draw a line in the sand at some point and we can’t write off the year because Colm is injured.”
