Cork midfielder Ian Maguire is pleased to have put his recent injury woes behind him.
The St Finbarr's clubman formed a new-look Rebels centrefield partnership with Ruairi Deane against Limerick in the McGrath Cup on Sunday.
"I'm delighted," he told The Irish Independent. "I went back with the club last summer, but I picked up an ankle injury so I was lost for the club championship as well. I am just delighted now; I got pre-season training in me and I am back for the McGrath Cup.
"I had a back injury in December, 2014 and it just came at me when I got on the bus against Monaghan. I was struggling with it all summer. I was training away, but I could never get match fitness. We got knocked out against Kildare and that was it.
"It was all rest, there was a small bit of medication too. Then it was all gym, strengthening the different parts of your body. It was learning. I learnt from it and I will never take football for granted again. That is for sure. You think everything is ahead of you and then an injury brings you down.
"It is frustrating in the sense that I was training away and I felt I was getting it right, but then something would come up. Two weeks before the Munster final, you are training away and I had to pull out of training as my back came at me.
"Every time the Championship was dangling in front of me, it kept getting pulled away from me. Then we had junior championship with the Barr's and sure I broke my ankle a week before we were due to play Castlehaven.
"I was coming away from games thinking, 'I am never going to get right'. You just have to keep your head down. All the boys supported me and winter is done now - McGrath Cup, National League, I cannot wait."
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