‘It makes you appreciate the time you’re playing a lot more’ – Niamh Rockett

Her defiance of science, and her decision to ignore the doctors who told her that, so bad were her knees, she might be in a wheelchair by 30 if she carried on playing sport, mark her out as something extraordinary.

Rockett was a teenager when she was told drastic surgery was necessary. In the interests of her quality of life going forward they wanted radical intervention. The proposal was stark. They would break her knees to realign them, and in the process bring about an end to her playing days at just 16.

“I still remember going into the doctor, the surgeon, telling me that: ‘You know, there’s only about three people in the world that have the exact same problem as you have with your knee. I can’t even compare it to [anything] or tell you what you should do, that it’s this, this and this and that is how someone gets back [playing], because of the nature of the injury’.”

It should have been the end of the road. A career over before it really got going but Rockett went the other way. Some 15 years on, she’s still going.

“I suppose it makes you appreciate the time you’re playing that bit more . . . I suppose having faced all that and done all the stuff to get back, it does make you appreciate it a lot more.

“And you really dedicate yourself, because you only have a certain timespan that you can play at an elite level, at a high level.”

She’s still there with Waterford, trying to make a piece of camogie history by becoming, what she believes would be, the first player to win All-Ireland medals at junior, intermediate and senior. She came within a whisker of completing the set last year before their dreams were dashed by a brilliant Cork in the All-Ireland final.

She’s back in action with Waterford once more this year and this weekend they face Antrim. To stay in the fight, she suffers a daily battle with her knees. With experience, she has become better at listening to her body.

“I’d say it [camogie] would make it worse, you know, the twisting and turning.

“Obviously putting your body through it then . . . like, you can’t just say I’m not going or I’m not doing training. There’s not one training session . . . say this year, for example. I haven’t missed a training session this year whereas in previous years I would have missed ones here and there because my knee might have swelled up.

“Now, I’m just better able to manage it. Knowing when to push myself and what aggravates it and doesn’t aggravate it.

“And then getting the recovery in is massive for me. Ice baths, plunge pools, in the sauna and steam room, getting the heat into it, stretching it every single day. That’s just after helping me massively, I’ll always find half an hour, 45 minutes to make sure of that.

“After games, after training. A hot bath, anything. I find it’s really after elevating my performance and I suppose it’s about keeping the swelling down a bit as well.

“I can’t help it some days. I might be up at night and I might be in pain with it, because the pain might be just physically inside it, like.”

Waterford won through to a historic All-Ireland final appearance in 2023 but didn’t do themselves justice. That performance still grates but she insists that, despite everything and all the pain and hardship with her knees, the juice is worth the squeeze.

“After the All-Ireland last year, [I’d have said] no! But yeah, my dream would be to get the junior, intermediate and senior All-Ireland. I don’t know if any camogie player has it. I don’t think I’d be seen ever if [I did it]. I think I’d be gone for a month! I think you’d have to send out a search party in Waterford for me if I got the three of those because I think that would be just the pinnacle of my career.

“It wouldn’t be any All-Stars or player of the match awards, it would be getting three All-Ireland medals in three different grades. Given what happened [with her knees] before that, it would be great.

“There’s such a small margin between all the teams at the moment that it’s so hard to get there. We should have really performed better last year in the All-Ireland final given it’s so hard to get into that position. But hopefully we’ll have a chance to redeem ourselves this year.”