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Sully’s back at the Bridge Meadow and raring to go
If there was an award for determination in the face of sporting adversity then there is no doubt that a serious candidate would be Chris O’Sullivan because the popular footballer and amateur boxing champion known to all as ‘Sully’ is back in action at the Bridge Meadow Stadium after recovering from no fewer than 12 shoulder dislocations sustained in his pursuit of both sports.
When he sat on the bench for the Bluebirds at Port Talbot it marked a major step in his rehabilitation and when he played from the start in the next match against Gap Connors Quay he was hugely relieved to come through with flying colours.
“I took a couple of tumbles but everything was fine,” he said, “and although I naturally felt tired afterwards I knew that all the effort was worthwhile.”
Dislocation Dozen!
It looked as if his playing days were all over when he made it a ‘dislocation dozen’ but he decided that at only 26 years of age it was worth another shot and so opted for a major operation by Mr Appan at Withybush in September last year. Sully had two large metal plates and two steel pins inserted in his shoulder during a nine-hour operation in what he describes as,
“My last chance saloon!”
He had his arm in a sling for six weeks and wasn’t allowed any exercise for two months and no physical contact for another three months on top of that. In fact, the first exercise he was allowed was to stretch some large elastic bands!
Hard work in rehabilitation
Since then he has been able to push himself a little harder as the shoulder muscles have become stronger, starting with lifting dumbbells that weighed a kilo each and then double that small weight to show that he was beginning to make a little progress.
Sully admits that sometimes there was inevitably frustration as he felt that things weren’t going as well as he had hoped but at least he could keep up his roadwork so that he could regularly be seen running around the pavements of Goodwick and Fishguard as he made sure that his overall fitness was developing at the same time.
“I was also lucky that I could return to the Merlins Bridge gym run by Graham and Gill Brockway,” said Sully, “because their encouragement gave me a much-needed boost as I built up to actually using my shoulder with some light punching on the bags. I skipped a lot, and suffered the hard work that Gill put me though in her Taibo exercises. It was murder at first but I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it!”
First problems
It all seems a long way from the first time that Sully dislocated his shoulder, when he was defending his Welsh title in the boxing ring at Newport Leisure Centre. He and his older brother Wayne had both won titles in their respective divisions the previous year and Chris was hot favourite to complete a double and Chris was on top midway through the second round when he threw a straight right and immediately knew something was up. To move his arm at all was sheer agony and it was impossible to defend himself so he had to retire and allow his opponent to pinch his title, which Chris jokingly says was just as painful as the dislocation!
He still insists that the injury almost certainly harks back to the time when he was knocked over by a lorry in Letterston and broke his neck, so that he had to wear a ‘crown’ pinned into his head to make sure that his neck was protected until it healed.
“It was awful,” says Sully, “but I was very lucky to be still alive – and so when I dislocated my shoulder I knew it was something else that I had to overcome.”
But it has been a hard road and there have been major set-backs along the way as the injury kept repeating itself and he had to have his shoulder set and reset, especially whenever he was bundled over in football matches.
Asked back to the Bridge Meadow
He was delighted when he was contacted by Derek Brazil and Rob Summons, who are manager and chairman respectively of Haverfordwest County, to see if he was interested in returning to the Bridge Meadow in his old role as right midfielder. He was also approached by Deryn Brace, of Carmarthen Town, but decided to return to action alongside his old pal Lee Hudgell at the Bridge Meadow Stadium.
“Derek and Rob have always been straight with me and although I was flattered to be asked up to Carmarthen by Deryn, I decided that I should play for Haverfordwest County – and it is great to be back in action in front of a great crowd who have always given me 100% support.”
New targets set for Sully
Not content with his return to football, however, Sully is also adamant that he is going to give boxing another try and has set his sights on being fully fit and ready to box at a home show with Merlins Bridge ABC in Haverfordwest during June.
“I know there are people who say that I should leave well alone but life’s not like that for me,” admits Chris, “I have overcome some challenges already and that is just another one. If I didn’t give it a go I would regret it later because I love my boxing almost as much as my football. I will give it my best shot and I just hope it will all work out.”
All PembrokeshireSport.co.uk can add to that statement is that if determination is a keynote feature then Chris O’Sullivan will carry on where he left off on that fateful night in Newport – and no-one deserves the success more than Sully does!
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