'Life is precious beyond belief' - Murray on accident which left his father fighting for his life

FORMER Munster Rugby and Ireland star Conor Murray has detailed the shock and horror of a serious accident which left his father fighting for his life.

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In an extract from his new autobiography ‘Cloud Nine My Life in Rugby’, which was published in the Sunday Independent last weekend, Patrickswell native Murray describes what that period in early 2023 was like.

"I was in Carton House when I got the call that dad had been knocked off his bike and taken by ambulance to hospital in Limerick where his condition was critical.

"It was Tuesday February 7, 2023. The previous Saturday I'd started the first game of that season's Six Nations and was due to start the following Saturday against France. In my world, everything was going well.

"Then you get a phone call that turns your world upside down in a second. My father loved his cycling, man and boy. He'd been out for a spin on the roads that afternoon. He was on the hard shoulder of the road from Croom, only about a kilometre away from our home in Patrickswell. The driver of a truck that was pulling a slurry tanker came up the slip road, failed to stop at the stop sign and collided side-on with my dad.

"The impact was shocking. He was driven backwards onto the road. His back, and the back of his head in particular, took the impact of the tarmac. His feet were still clipped into the pedals. He blacked out instantly. The bike's titanium frame was cracked and his helmet was smashed. It absorbed a great deal of the force. The helmet probably saved his life. Passers-by pulled in and called the emergency services.

"In Carton House I told Faz [Andy Farrell] the news. I was in a state of shock. He told me to get on the road straight away, I had to be with my family. It was a terrifying drive, I was sick with worry and fear.

"We were told that his brain was swollen and he would have to be transferred to the neurosurgical centre in Cork University Hospital to get the highly specialised treatment he would need. There he would be put into an induced coma in the hope that the swelling would abate. The next few days would be crucial.”

The former Munster scrum-half describes what it was like having to juggle his father's health updates with the demands required of him on the field.

In the book extract in the Sunday Independent, Murray revealed: "When I got back to Carton House that night and turned up for training the next day, my dad was still in critical, I turned on my rugby mind and prepared for France.

"I started against Scotland too and came off the bench against Italy and England. I'd been part of this 2023 Grand Slam campaign while getting updates every day from the hospital in Cork.

"On the one hand, my head was full of information about our next opponents, our tactics, our set moves and the multiple rehearsals of our plans; on the other it was navigating the worry and fear about dad's condition."

After spending more than a fortnight in Cork University Hospital , Gerry Murray was conscious but had no recollection of the incident.

"Dad had no idea where he was when he woke up. He had no memory of the accident. He had to learn how to walk again. His speech and hearing were badly affected . . . . .

"In my game we talk about resilience a lot. It is really important and I've been lucky enough to have a fair amount of it too. In the last two years I've seen exactly where I got it from. Sport is sport, but life is life and it is precious beyond words."

Conor Murray’s autobiography ‘Cloud Nine My Life in Rugby’ written with Tommy Conlon, is due to be released this September.