Injury-free Louise Kenny happy to be back as Armagh face Mayo

In the eight years that separated Armagh's Lidl National Football League Division 2 final triumphs of 2015 and 2023, Louise Kenny has more often than not found herself as a spectator at inter-county matches instead of being an active participant.

Just a number of weeks after securing the second-tier league title with the Orchard women in 2015 – alongside her clubmate Aimee Mackin – with a final victory over Donegal at Parnell Park, Kenny was ruled out for the remainder of the season with an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury.

Almost three years passed before she donned the Armagh colours again, but she damaged her ACL for a second time while on colleges duty with St Mary’s University College in the spring of 2018. Although she bounced back to play a starring role with Shane O’Neill's at local level, it wasn’t until the beginning of this year that she was back in the Orchard fold.

Having made her return in an opening round success against Cavan at Drumlane, Kenny went on to feature six more times in their Lidl NFL Division 2 campaign. This included the competition’s showpiece encounter with Laois at Croke Park on 15 April, when Kenny was selected at left corner-back as Armagh ran out 4-09 to 2-10 winners.

"I had been approached by the last few managers that have taken the teams, but I just didn’t think that I was in the right space. I know it has only been a few years since I did the knee, so I was just making sure that I was looking after myself first," Kenny explains.

"Because I’d be close friends with Aimee, and she was playing away and training away, I had it in my head that I probably would like to go back at some stage. It was just maybe the injury side of things that was holding me back.

"I was doing well with the