Stefan Okunbor says it’ll be full steam ahead in 2023 after a stop-start first season with Kerry.
It emerged in September of last year that Okunbor was parking his AFL ambitions with Geelong after three years as he returned home with a reunion with newly-appointed Kerry senior boss Jack O’Connor, who had worked with him at underage level, in store.
But, while he was part of the squad as they completed a clean sweep of League, Munster and All-Ireland titles, he only saw game time in the McGrath Cup as injuries dogged him. It was all too familiar after his stint in Australia, where calf and Achilles problems along with osteitis pubis were among his ailments.
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“Well, out of the three years I’d say I spent two of them on the physio table,” he says of his time down under. “I was three years in and let’s say I wasn’t exactly kicking the lights out.
“And college were pulling a few strings as well saying, ‘Right if you’re three years out of your course you’ll be sent back to first year if you spend one more year out there’.
“So I kind of weighed up my options and thought it was probably best I do come home at this point. I’m 24 and in my final year now and that extra year out there just makes it so much tougher to transition back and I was very much aware of that.”
Okunbor is studying biomedical engineering at UL and currently rehabbing a shoulder injury which first cropped up when playing for his club Na Gaeil against Steelstown in the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final in January, when he suffered a dislocation.
Other injury issues cropped up during the year too but he has undergone surgery on the shoulder since Kerry’s All-Ireland win with a view to being good to go come the new year.
“The second my body is fully fit come January I’ll be trying my best to nail a spot on that team.
“It’s a very hard thing to do, very competitive, a very high standard, so I’ll do what I can. I’m enjoying it, which is the main part because the second I stop enjoying it I’ll stop playing.”
Despite being peripheral this year, Okunbor insists that it doesn’t water down the achievement of winning an All-Ireland for him.
“In my first year back I wouldn’t say so. I think making the panel was just a testament to me getting back from every single injury because I don’t think I had four weeks straight without being injured.
“There was Achilles, calf, groin, shoulder, so I was just very privileged and blessed to be part of the whole squad.”
However, while he had endured more than his fair share of injuries both in Ireland and Australia, it’s far easier to dealing with them when back at home.
“Definitely, it can be very lonely at times, more so in Australia because football is your livelihood. You are there to play football, if you are injured what are you there for? That’s the mindset I was in, I had to try snap out of it.
“Whereas with the injury here in Ireland, fair enough I was gone for maybe nine weeks initially with the shoulder dislocation, but I had college, I had friends, I had different things going on in my life to occupy whereas in Australia you are going in to do three four-hour sessions while the rest of the boys are training.
“So it gets very lonely very quickly and with the time difference as well, you are so far away from your friends and family and it is very hard to get them on the phone.
“But I guess, going through all of those injuries alone in Australia made it far easier going through the recovery process here in Ireland.
“Possibly a lot of players would take a year out if they had such a serious injury like a shoulder dislocation, but there is just something special about the group and I couldn’t step away for a year.”
Of course, Geelong went on to claim the AFL Premiership this year with fellow countyman Mark O’Connor involved along with Laois native Zac Tuohy, though there were no pangs of regret for Okunbor on that score.
“No, definitely not. I'd be in a different mind space now if I didn't manage to win the All-Ireland, of course. But no, I'm very, very content. This has been a life goal of mine, a dream, so I'm very, very content with where I am at the moment.”
And while Tyrone’s Conor McKenna is poised to resume his AFL career and Ciaran Byrne of Louth recently rejected an offer to do the same, the Tralee insists that he wouldn’t be tempted by any such opportunities if they came along.
“I’m still young enough but, to be honest with you, if I went back to play AFL football I’d feel like I’m going backwards in life.
“I’m very happy with where I’m at at the moment. College is progressing, life is going really good, friends and family are there for me at the moment. If I go back to Australia I think it’d only be for a holiday.”
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