Rhys Kavanagh: From retirement and recovery to firing the Linnets into Europe
15/05/2021 - Barry Town United 3-2 Caernarfon Town © Rhys Skinner
Having been prolific for Newport County and Bristol Rovers’ youth teams early in his career, Rhys Kavanagh looked to be making a real impression
However, a series of unfortunate injuries for the attacker restricted him from minutes on the pitch, forcing him to retire from professional football aged just 21.
Fast-forward a year and Kavanagh, after his road to recovery, will line up in Barry Town’s key European play-off semi-final against Caernarfon Town.
After coming through the ranks at Cardiff City, Kavanagh joined Newport County, scoring 28 goals in 32 appearances for the under 18’s to earn a move to Bristol Rovers.
Despite impressing in the early stages of his time at the Memorial Stadium, Kavanagh expressed that he was playing through significant discomfort.
“When I first signed there, I had done my meniscus. I had the surgery to increase healing so I had no problems with my knee, but I had something called Osteitis Pubis.
“It’s when your pelvis rubs and it causes inflammation around your pubis area and I didn’t know what it was. Whilst I was at County, I had it for years, my first year at Newport and I was playing through it.
“My second year it started hurting and I was managing it, playing twice a week and I was playing on the Saturday and we’d be winning, so my manager at the time would just be happy for me to manage it and play, so I never really knew what it was.
“Then, a kid came on loan from Fulham and he said he’d had that injury. I went to my physio at the time, a week later, I went for a scan and it was Osteitis Pubis.
“To help that, the only thing that you can do is rest from professional football for 18 months or you can have steroids. I had three steroid injections and it worked for a year, but the pain came back.
While the suffering from the chronic groin condition continued, so did Kavanagh’s misfortune, as another injury was discovered.
The 22-year-old attacker explained the injury troubles that led to his departure from Bristol Rovers.
“At the end of my third year as a professional, I just had my third injection and I felt something high in my belly and it was a different pain.
“It turned out I had a hernia, so the pain from the Osteitis Pubis was from the hernia I had the whole time, but you couldn’t tell I had it.
“Since then, I had surgery on my hernia and I didn’t recover from that. I had surgery in January and they said you should be back running in four weeks. It came to the four weeks and I couldn’t even do a sit-up.”
After his time at Bristol Rovers was cruelly ended by injury, Kavanagh was also forced to retire from professional football.
The Linnets’ front-man expressed it was a difficult and emotional decision to walk away from the game.
“It was tough because it’s every kid’s dream to be a professional footballer and I managed to be around it for three years and enjoyed every minute, but it was heart-breaking at the same time to walk away from football.
“It’s all I’ve ever known since I was seven, ever since I played for Cardiff, all I’ve ever done is play football every week, all I know is to play football. Even if it wasn’t going to be serious, I always wanted to play football and stay as high as I could.
“When I spoke to the doctor, he said it was best to retire through injury and go through the FA, let them help me out, so I did that but my claim got rejected because they didn’t class it as an injury, they classed it as a condition.
“The injury I had, there’s not much information about it, there’s no surgery you can have for Osteitis Pubis, just steroids to numb it. So, I retired then through injury.”
However, Kavanagh expressed a desire to continue playing despite his retirement from professional football.
After the rejection of his claim when leaving Bristol Rovers, the attacker expressed that his road to recovery began during lockdown.
“Through lockdown, it probably helped me because I did nothing for a whole year, no gym, just rested.
“Ever since then, I’ve been fine, I’m buzzing really, haven’t had any pain since. I got myself fit and felt maybe I can go back into it, starting feeling better and feeling myself.
“My agent messaged Gav (Chesterfield) to get me training at Barry and they offered me a contract.”
Having signed for the Barry Town in January, Kavanagh has returned to the field and has since made an impression in the Cymru Premier.
The 22-year-old expressed his gratitude to Linnets manager Gavin Chesterfield for the opportunity to be back playing.
“I can’t thank Gav enough because it was a risk for him to sign me because he knew that I had retired through injury.
“I’m so grateful that he gave me the opportunity to sign and to get myself back fit and I’m feeling fit and feeling good.
“There’s nothing better than playing on a Saturday and training through the week.”
Since arriving at Jenner Park, Kavanagh has played 14 times in the Cymru Premier and has looked sharp, mostly operating as a winger.
The attacker also grabbed his first goal for the club at the weekend in a 3-2 victory over Caernarfon Town on the final day of the regular season.
With Barry Town facing the Cofis in the European play-off semi-final this weekend, Kavanagh expressed his desire to continue his form to fire the Linnets into Europe.
“I’ve been waiting to score for ages, I just couldn’t score. But I think once you get your first goal, they’ll come naturally, so we’ve got Caernarfon now on Saturday, so hopefully my form continues.
“They’re not a push-over Caernarfon, but I think on our day, we’ll beat anyone. With the team we’ve got, I honestly think we could beat anyone. Hopefully, we can get a result, but they’ll definitely be fighting.
“I’ve never had this kind of experience before, the only kind of competition I’ve had was when I was 17 or 18 in the Welsh Cup so it’s good to have something to work towards, and hopefully, we can get into Europe. I’m buzzing for it and I can’t wait.
