only to crumple to the ground<\/a> in the final quarter of the side\u2019s clash with Mayo at the end of May. McCaul knew instantly he’d suffered another cruciate injury in the same knee, he was familiar with the feeling. What he wasn\u2019t familiar with was just how different he felt – feels – second time around.<\/p>\n“It was being back at the bottom of the mountain for a second time, only this time there’s not even a sense of adventure,” McCaul told RT\u00c9 Sport.<\/p>\n
![\"31](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/00249721-614.jpg\"\/)
\nBobby McCaul is carried from the field after suffering a cruciate injury against Mayo<\/p>\n
“The first time you are looking at surgery straight away, when can we get rolling.<\/p>\n
“I wouldn\u2019t say it was easier to process, but it was faster to process. I got on top of the swelling, got back in the gym, there\u2019s a lot you can do in terms of anti-inflammatories because your quad takes such a big hit after surgery, it wears away to nothing, so you have to get into good shape and into surgery condition because they won\u2019t touch your knee until the swelling is gone.<\/p>\n
“This time? It\u2019s been a different set of emotions and I\u2019ve struggled.<\/p>\n
“It was four or five days after the Mayo match that it hit home. I needed a break, I headed to Croatia with my girlfriend, spent time with family, I needed space and I probably still do.<\/p>\n
“My surgery is 25 July, that\u2019s only day zero and it\u2019ll be two months after the injury when I get it done. I wasn’t in the headspace to have it straight away.<\/p>\n
“I was getting all these texts, people looking me to come do this, do that; it\u2019s not fake but just the headspace I was in, I was just thinking \u2018you wouldn\u2019t be offering if it wasn\u2019t for the injury\u2019. And that\u2019s just where I was, how I felt.<\/p>\n
“People were being incredibly kind, trying to help me through it all, but deep down I knew I was just keeping myself busy so I didn\u2019t have to face the music.<\/p>\n
“I was filling out my day with side-quests, just kicking the can down the road, but that day in Donegal was a big day for me. I needed that day.”<\/p>\n
Sunday should have been a big one for McCaul; it should have been his first time playing at Croke Park and the fact it\u2019s Louth should have brought plenty of extras.<\/p>\n
His father Phil is a principal at Scoil N\u00e1isi\u00fanta R\u00e9alt na Mara in Dundalk and has his white and blue flag out. McCaul has enjoyed plenty of club battles with Louth half-forward James Maguire, who plays his ball with Carrickmacross. Maguire went to Patrician High in the Oriel County, and competed in a fierce rivalry with McCaul\u2019s Our Lady\u2019s, Castleblayney. When he was younger, McCaul played rugby with some of the Louth squad.<\/p>\n
Which makes the next question so hard for him to answer – is he actually looking forward to the weekend?<\/p>\n
The trainee veterinary student knows how his answer will come across – selfish. He constantly repeats that he wants nothing more right now than to see Monaghan get past the Wee County, they\u2019ll not have a bigger supporter.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019d be lying if he didn\u2019t say other emotions were pulling at him. It pisses him off that he won\u2019t get to run out with the team, it pisses him off that he hasn\u2019t played with Aughnamullen since October 2024. He\u2019s counting the days in hundreds now and it\u2019s over the 600-mark. He knows it\u2019ll be 1000 by the time he finally gets that chance again.<\/p>\n
“You put your whole year into trusting the process and then that trust isn\u2019t repaid,” he said of his recovery between cruciate injuries.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m no special case, lots and lots of people have done their cruciate twice but I\u2019m finding the transition back to supporter from a player tough.<\/p>\n
“People keep saying it could be a lot worse, and they\u2019re dead right, you could be sick or something, but that doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t hard to accept as a 20-year-old.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m finding the trauma hard to deal with this second time around. First time you go down and you think \u2018Jesus Christ, what was that?\u2019 Second time I knew instantly, everything ripped away in a split-second.<\/p>\n
“I found it hard to raise myself to actually go back to Clones [for Monaghan\u2019s games against Roscommon and Westmeath]; that may sound selfish, and probably is, but there was trauma there coming off that pitch.<\/p>\n
\n
“Even with that, there will be nobody more than myself hoping they do it. It would just bring me so much happiness to see them find a way through and to continue that journey. What a group of lads. I just absolutely love watching them play.”<\/p>\n
If there is one positive to glean from such a negative it\u2019s that his inaction on the pitch over the last year has reignited his gr\u00e1 for music.<\/p>\n
McCaul is no dabbler, though. An underage All-Ireland champion on the banjo and mandolin, he is also an expert on the concertina.<\/p>\n
Right now, he\u2019s no interest in competition, instead linking up with guitarist Stephen Cusack to form a two-piece called Banjaxed – gallows humour given McCaul\u2019s recent injury history – and they\u2019re mostly booked through to the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Music wasn\u2019t a huge part of his parent\u2019s lives. His father Phil played a bit of accordion at one stage while his mother Paula didn\u2019t play anything.<\/p>\n
Still, one day his father landed home with a rake of instruments and the four siblings were plainly told that they would have to commit. A football pitch was marked out at the home house but it didn\u2019t matter, 30 minutes of music practice always came before football.<\/p>\n
All-Ireland titles have rained down on the family homestead since. As well as McCaul\u2019s haul, sisters Evelyn (harp) and Anna (accordion) have tasted national success. So too has brother Phil \u00d3g, a specialist on the uilleann pipes. The flute and fiddle are other instruments the family can play.<\/p>\n
\n
Phil \u00d3g, by the way, is only 17 but already is an inch taller than Bobby – 6′ 5″ to 6\u2019 4″ – and is really improving as a footballer.<\/p>\n
“Music would have been our number one, from ages 10 to 18, right up to Covid, music was my thing,” McCaul said.<\/p>\n
“When you get called into the Under-20s, seniors with Monaghan you get so invested with it to the point where it\u2019s taking over everything. It\u2019s your dream but other things slip.<\/p>\n
“An injury like an ACL can actually make you realise how important other things are in life. Football maybe isn\u2019t the be-all and end-all.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m a trainee vet and maybe football was impacting that. It\u2019s not that I wasn\u2019t studying but I maybe wasn\u2019t giving it the respect it deserved.<\/p>\n
“Football is a short period in your life and even at that, it might not be your best friend.”<\/p>\n
Watch The Saturday Game on catch-up on RT\u00c9 Player and The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on all matches on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n
Watch two All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals, Louth v Monaghan (1.45pm) and Galway v Dublin (4pm), on Sunday from 1.15pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple of weeks ago, Monaghan’s Bobby McCaul woke up in a terrible mood, got dressed, jumped into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-522618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}