This article is from page 78 of the 2008-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 78 JPG
HEATHER Nolan’s accident couldn’t have come at a worse time. As one of Ireland’s most promising golfers, the Shannon native was gearing up for a summer of European Tour dates until a unfortunate accident caused her to shatter her elbow into ten pieces.
“I was running to my car to go golf- ing but I slipped and fell on a speed
bump and landed directly on my left elbow.” explained the 24 year old Shannon golf Club member.
“It just shattered the bone. The specialist said it was left in about 10 pieces. I’d never injured it before and the pain was incredible.”
It was particularly disappointing for Nolan as she had just been called up to the Team Ireland Trust in March and had received a €7,000 grant in
preparation for the European ‘Tour. This setback now means that she will have a several week lay-off in a bid to heal the elbow and will have to endure a tedious reabilitation pro- gramme before resuming her career.
“I was down in the dumps for the last few days but now I’m focusing on getting well as soon as possible and getting back playing golf. It’s going to be a long, hard process. My target
is the summer but the physios prob- ably think differently.”
The only upside of such an unfor- tunate incident is that she still has the backing of the Team Ireland Golf Trust who have reinforced their com- mitment to the Clare native despite her serious injury and have offered the services of the Irish Sports Coun- cil’s extensive team of physiothera- pists and doctors to aid her recovery.