THERE ARE times when being away from home just isn’t easy.For Tadhg Kennelly, the past month has been one of those times.
After making a miraculous recovery from a dislocated kneecapto return for the Swans’ round eight clash against Port Adelaide, Kennelly wasin high spirits when he and teammate Jared Crouch announced they would participatein the
The 25-year-old lost his dad Tim, a former Gaelic footballlegend, to heart disease in December, 2005.
But, just 24 hours after the announcement, Kennelly was inhospital himself being tested for a variety of illnesses.
While a lumbar puncture revealed that the talented Irishmanwas not suffering from the dreaded bacterial meningitis strain, Kennelly wasdiagnosed with viral meningitis and was forced to spend two days on a drip inhospital recovering.
“It was a scary time because when I went to the doctor andhe mentioned meningitis, the first thing I thought of was bacterial as he didtoo,” Kennelly says.
“The thing that really scared me was that he (Dr. NathanGibbs) was so frightened and serious about it and I suppose that made me worry.
“I had massive headaches and was shivering and vomiting andsweating. My temperature had sky rocketed by the time I made it to the doctor… Ididn’t want to tell my mother as I didn’t want her to worry.”
Despite the club’s efforts to keep Kennelly’s hospital stayquiet, the Listowel native received a phone call from the doctor after hisfirst night in hospital to say that the player welfare manager had a missedcall from
“He (Phil Mullen) didn’t answer the phone because he knew itwas my mum and he didn’t want to frighten her without knowing exactly what waswrong,” Kennelly says.
“I was going bananas saying ‘Who told my mum?’. Then I ranghome and my mum was in bed because it was quite late and she was just like, ‘Howare you?’ and didn’t know anything. So then I had to tell her I was inhospital. Luckily though, I had the tests back by then so at least I could tellher I was going to be fine.
“It’s hard being away from home when you’re sick though. Youdon’t have your close relatives to spoil you like they normally would. At timeslike that, you miss them even more.”
However, Kennelly says that he does have a strong supportnetwork here in
“My housemate Doyley (Stephen Doyle) is like my wife really.He’s fantastic, he picked me up from the hospital and he cooks for me. Mind you,maybe it was his cooking that made me sick in the first place,” Kennelly jokes.
“I’ve also got good friends out here from Listowel andthey’ve really looked after me. They came around and cooked dinner. I’ve gotsome pretty good neighbours too.”
Despite being released from hospital, the Swans’ star wasstill too unwell to play in round nine and, as the rest of his team matesboarded a plane for
“I still had the headaches and the lumbar puncture I hadmeant my back was still really sore so I wasn’t able to do much,” Kennellysays.
For the second time this season though, Kennelly showed hisresilience to make a quick recovery for the Essendon game.
“On the Tuesday before, I didn’t think I’d play. I still hadthe headaches and I went for a 10-minute jog, which was little more than a walkand I was no good. Then on Wednesday, I started to come around and theheadaches really went away. Again I did a 10-minute jog and it was much better,I just didn’t have much energy,” Kennelly says.
The Swans star admits that the real secret to his recoverywas his diet.
“Every day last week I had spuds, meat and three veg becauseI had to get my weight back up. Initially I couldn’t eat at all and wasvomiting and couldn’t hold anything down. I had lost four kilos,” he says.
Despite the odds, Kennelly returned for the SCG clash andalthough the result didn’t go the Swans’ way, he hopes his run of bad luck hasended.
“I’m hoping I won’t have to see the doctor again for a longtime. I’ve said to him that I don’t want to see him for six months. I’ll behaving withdrawal symptoms from talking to him every day,” Kennelly says.
For the first time since the press conference to announcehis and Jared Crouch’s marathon bid, Tadhg can now look forward to the pair’sNovember adventure in
“It’s great that Jared’s doing it with me. He’s a superb guyand he does an enormous amount of charity work. I can’t wait to go to
Most importantly, the Swans star is eager to raise awarenessfor the Heart Foundation, a cause that he is passionate about since the passingof his dad.
“It’s a great cause both here and at home in
Kennelly says that memories of his dad inspired him to takeon the marathon challenge.
“Dad actually ran the
Kennelly knows that the marathon will be a big ask after ataxing football season but the inspiration he takes from his dad will get himthrough.
“It’s going to be a big challenge but I know that my dadwill be with me every step of the way.”
