SOMETIMES YOU have to wonder what keeps bringing them back for more. It’s hard enough to handle a broken-down body. It’s harder still to handle a broken heart. Life can be cruel like that but you can’t walk away from life. You can walk away from hurling.

If Ken McGrath felt that way he’d have given up on it a long time ago. He’s had his heart broken more than enough times, none more shattering than last September’s All-Ireland defeat to Kilkenny. If he’d walked away then no one could have denied him.Having given 13 championship seasons to Waterford his loyalty would forever be unquestioned.

“I suppose you just don’t want to go out like that. You have to forget it. If you’re still thinking about it you wouldn’t have been back training in January. You can’t think about these things too much. Your head would blow up. So I just put in a big effort from January on. I still love the game, still enjoy it. And I felt I never trained as hard this year.”

At 31 the training certainly wasn’t getting any easier, but McGrath threw himself into it. February, March, April. He felt he was coming into the form of his life as the championship approached. Limerick, Sunday, June 14th. Exactly a week before, in a final training game, he felt something give in his left knee. Or was it the old hamstring acting up? Maybe just a calf strain?

“The knee just felt a little aggravated. I didn’t think too much. But then I probably took so much diaphene that week to get it right that I thought it was okay. I suppose when you’re training since January, February, you don’t want to give in to it.”

McGrath was named at centre forward, another fresh start for the player who won three All Stars mainly for his defensive qualities. He felt up for it. It rained hard in Thurles that day and from almost the first puck-out McGrath was in trouble. Typically, he played through the pain, before being replaced for the final five minutes.

“I knew two or three minutes in that my legs weren’t going as well as I wanted them to. I couldn’t really get going at all. I got a virus the week before the game as well, and lost a little weight. That didn’t help, and added to the whole thing. I tried to play through it. And after a poor first half, you want to go out and try harder in the second half. I should have put my hand up. Because a young fella would have been better than me at that stage.”

The next morning he went for a scan – and a day later was in Tadhg O’Sullivan’s surgery: “I needed a small operation on the cartilage. It’s just wear and tear, really. I’ve had a few problems with the knees for the last number of years, so it’s a lot of mileage in the legs as much as anything. I should have known, though, because I got the right knee done twice last year.

“But it couldn’t have been worse timing, really. I was down for a week or two, but came around. Sport can be cruel like that, and it’s been a hard few weeks. But all I can do is try to get back again, hopefully an All-Ireland semi-final, if we get that far.”

The diagnosis was a six- to 10-week lay-off after the operation. McGrath missed the replay win over Limerick, and only came off the crutches last Saturday week, and his only chance of playing hurling this summer is if Waterford make it to an All-Ireland semi-final. It’s a chance he’s willing to take. “I still feel I’ve something to offer Waterford. But just not at the moment. That’s very frustrating. I’d like to give it a few more years, but I just don’t know. But hopefully if Waterford make a semi-final they’ll be able to wheel me out somewhere.”

It means McGrath will be a spectator in Thurles for Sunday’s Munster final against Tipperary.