Former Cork footballer Diarmuid Duggan accepts that burn-out sparked his injury nightmare.

The Ilen Rovers clubman is out of pocket to the tune of €7,000 over injuries which he says were caused by over-training and too much playing when he was young. Within a very short time frame, he was involved with his club at underage and junior levels, a divisional senior club side and Cork's minors, U21s, junior and seniors.

"I think there's definitely an overload on players from the ages of 17 to 22," he says in the Examiner. "They're trying to juggle and go from team to team. When you love playing, you don't want to refuse anyone.

"You probably don't have enough experience to handle a situation like that. In hindsight, I was being pulled by too many teams.

"But like any young player, I loved playing and it's hard to say no. When you're 22 or 23, you're able to stand up for yourself and say, 'I can't train here'. But as young lads, you end up going along with what you're told.

"When I was young, I played a ferocious amount of games. I played at all levels for the club and as we were junior, I played senior for the Carbery divisional team as well. Then I played for Cork at minor, U21, junior and senior.

"We were Sigerson at the time as well in Mary Immaculate. We'd a very good team at the time with Tomás Ó Sé, Ó Cinnéide, Stokes from Limerick, Stephen Lavin as well.

"But if I knew then what I know now, I definitely would have curtailed it. If I had a kid now and he was 16 or 17, I'd be very careful of how many games he plays.

"I wouldn't want him training three nights in a row for example." Tweet

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