Richie Sadlier: Soldiering On

A serious hip injury ended his career and ruined a lifelong dream of playing football, but Richard Sadlier continues to be optimistic about the future, despite his misfortune he remains focused, determined and strong.

Few players return to football when injury forces an unwanted decision and Sadlier was one of the unlucky few who had to find an alternative career when an injury blighted career came to a premature end. He could have been assigned one of the 23 tickets on Ireland’s Orient Express to experience the first ever World Cup in Asia, he could have realised every footballers dream.

Things were never better for Sadlier who made his full International debut against Russia in Dublin at the start of 2002, while his club, Millwall, were pushing for promotion to the Premiership.

Instead, at just 23 years old, he became a member of the one cap club and never competed at the highest level of English football, never played in World Cup, and never fulfilled his full potential. Sadlier, now 28, has not given up hope of playing football again but for the moment he satisfied with his role as a pundit for RTE, and in June he will celebrate his first year as chief executive of St Patrick’s Athletic.

He is also dabbling in print media and delivers a weekly column in the Sunday Independent, and has achieved a degree in sports psychology - all this since his retirement in 2003. He said: “I was really interested in sports psychology when I was studying for my first degree and I saw a sports psychologist when I retired because I wasn’t really dealing with things at all.”

Sadlier is able to pin-point the moment that blighted his career, leading to pain-killing injections before matches, and eventually forced his retirement from football. Millwall were playing away to Barnsley in 2002 and he had just recovered from a run-of-the-mill groin strain, but a shuddering halt to his career ensued after a blocked shot caused a sharp pain though his right hip.

He played out the full game but making the trip home from Barnsley, Sadlier knew the injury was serious and forced him to sit out two days training before a mid-week game against Preston. He took a pain-killing injection that should have allowed him to play the match feeling the minimal effects of pain but after only ten minutes gone, Sadlier signalled to the bench in agony.

Millwall were anxious to get their star striker back to help their push to automatic qualification to the Premiership, and immediately sent Richard to see a specialist.

He said: “The specialist told me I would need surgery but I wanted it postponed until the summer because we were so close I didn’t want to miss any of the games. I though the injury was an everyday knock but I didn’t recover soon enough so I went for surgery in April of 2002 knowing my season was over and any hopes of playing in the World Cup were over.” he added.

Sadlier believes that to be selected for Ireland’s World Cup squad he would have been dependent on other players pulling-out, but accepted he would have another opportunity to play in a major international tournament. He was sidelined for the crucial run-in of Millwall’s season, which eventually culminated in the semi-final of the Division One playoffs.

He said: “The toughest night was losing to Birmingham in the second leg of the playoffs in 2002, and I was sitting up in the stands watching – that was a really hard blow to take.

“There were always certain occasions where it would hit home and other days where you can cope easily enough with the injury, but our whole season was relying on that one game.

“Missing the World Cup had no impact on me, I honestly never thought I was going to be picked, but with Millwall, I was a part of the team, I had been there for six years and all our dreams of playing in the Premiership were gone,” said Sadlier.

Immediately after the first surgery on Richard’s hip in April 2002, the operating specialist came to check on his progress and mentioned the possibility of the injury being career threatening.

“It was the first time this possibility had ever been mentioned, but the specialist told me it was a 25% chance so I just thought it was a one in four and everything would be grand - I didn’t tell anyone about that,” said Sadlier.

Richard worked everyday with Millwall’s physio that summer, and felt he had made a full recovery from his injury, in time for the start of the following 02/03 season and Millwall’s opening game of the season. But less then a month after the first game of his comeback Richard was back on the operating table and back to square one - it was his second serious operation in a year.

He was warned that a second operation would leave him without cartilage in his injured right hip and he would have to prepare for the onset of arthritis and the probability of needing a hip replacement by his 40s, but he wasn’t deterred.
“I immediately said ‘so what, lets have it. I don’t care what happens to me when I’m 40 - I didn’t consult anyone, I didn’t think there was any doubt in my decision,” said Sadlier.

“I made my comeback in March 2003 and broke down again in training so it was back to the drawing board again - I played twice that season.”

In June 2003, Richard was still in rehabilitation and making his usual steady progress, but a severe pain while swimming brought about the realisation that he was fighting a losing battle. He said: “After that I knew I wasn’t going to recover and was just kidding myself so I made the decision to come back into the real world. I played the last 20 minutes of a league game away against Stoke on a Monday knowing it would be my last time to play.

“The following Wednesday when the club doctor made his usual weekly visit I got him and the physio into a quiet room and told them I was kidding myself and should pack it in – it was heartbreaking,” said Sadlier.

“I’d love to get back playing football, it’s what I love doing, but it doesn’t have the same importance in my life now, and I think if I got back playing it would be great, but if I didn’t it would be fine,” said Sadlier.

“I’m happy to live with my life and pursue other things - I never thought I would be able to say that.”