For Thomas Carty, the road back to the 3Arena has been anything but straightforward.
After suffering a serious ACL injury in Madison Square Garden last time out, the Dublin heavyweight admits his return to the ring required patience, resilience and unwilling belief that he’ll return to the heights already hit in his career.
What followed the freak injury last March was a lengthy spell on the sidelines, forcing “The Bomber” to confront the realities of what he described as a “gruelling and unpredictable” recovery process.
The injury brought momentum to a screeching halt at a time when ‘The Bomber’ felt everything was unfolding as planned. In the biggest fight of his life, that’s when the untimely setback occured, and he recalls beign firmly in control before everything changed in a matter of seconds.
“Things were going according to plan… I’d actually just cut him with a big left hand… the plan was to let him get a little bit tired and then take him out, because he wouldn’t be able to deal with the speed” he told Irish-Boxing.com.
25 November 2023
Picture By Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing
Thomas Carty
What followed the promising start was a moment that altered the course of his career up until this point.
“There was a bit of a scuffle… it’s still hard to say where and whatever happened, but it was in a period of about five or six seconds that something went wrong” he explained.
The aftermath was far more challenging than Carty initially anticipated. While the physical recovery in its nature was bound to be demanding, the mental battle proved to be just as testing.
“It’s been a long long road” he admitted. “There was stages in the last year where I couldn’t even walk. I know when people are out of the ring you hear ‘it’s been a long road’, but it really has been for me… it was a debilitating injury”
Though the knockout artist insists he never fully considered walking away from the sport, there were moments of genuine uncertainty surrounding his return.
“I never felt like throwing in the towel, but I thought that was going to be the only option at one stage… I was really considering if I’d ever be the same again, it was a pretty grim one” he said.
Rather than retreating from the sport, Carty chose to confront the rehabilitation process head-on, documenting his journey through recovery and inevitably back to the ring in an effort to track progress and offer perspective.
“I was quite oblivious to the whole injury world… so the whole idea of documenting the journey was that I could reflect on it and show people that through determination, having the right plan and working with a good phsyio you can come back, and you can come back better” he said.
Now, with the knee healed and the long months of rehab in the rear view, Carty sees the return not as an ending to the ordeal, but the first meaningful step on the path towards his former level.
“The plan is to get a test run on the knee now in March, see how it responds, and kick on from there… I was at a really high level. I was going to end up in a decent fight in the top 50 in the world” he said.
As for what can be expected when he steps back into the ring, Carty made no secret of his desire to mark the occasion in emphatic fashion.
“A destructive knockout to get this show back on the road. Get the away days planned. The Carty party is back!” he exclaimed.