Crealey’s comeback trail with Armagh

Armagh star Ben Crealey opens up on his recovery from long term injury

By Shaun Casey

For most, 2026 was a fairly successful season for Armagh. Another year of Division One football secured and a first Ulster Championship title in 18 years. Armagh fans would have bitten your hand off for that over the last decade.

For Ben Crealey, it was a complete write off. A year that never really took off.

Groin surgery post 2025, along with a neck injury that kept him in a brace all over Christmas, meant he was sidelined for the McKenna Cup and early stages of the National League.

Crealey did return and played his part in helping Armagh survive the drop as they beat Dublin and drew with Kerry in their last two games.

Ulster started with a bang as Kieran McGeeney’s men knocked out old rivals Tyrone in less comfortable fashion than expected, but they got the job done.

Then it all came crashing down for Crealey. Quite literally.

Before the Fermanagh quarter-final, he rose for a throw up in training. As a towering midfield, this was a scenario he’d seen thousands of times before.

But this one was different. He landed awkwardly and suddenly his 2026 campaign, for both club and county, was over.

By the end of the season, Crealey had only made six appearances. On a team that had already lost Niall Grimley, Rian O’Neill, Connaire Mackin and Shane McPartlan before a ball was kicked, Crealey’s loss around the middle was immeasurable.

“It was just a freak accident really,” the 2024 All-Star midfielder said of the injury. “We were starting a training game, and I was going up for the throw up and whatever way I came down, my ankle got caught underneath me.

“It was a mess at that stage. It was a fracture and dislocation, I broke my leg, and my ankle was basically pointing directions that it shouldn’t be, so there was quite a bit of damage.”

First, the shock set in. Then came the wave of pain. Rushed by the ambulance straight to the hospital, Crealey’s struggles were unfortunately only starting.

“I was just in shock for the first couple of seconds and then I looked down and my ankle was facing 90 degrees,” Crealey described six months on.

“Even at that stage, the pain hadn’t hit but when it did, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The pain was pretty bad, but I was lucky, our team doctor Shane was there that night and had all the gear for stuff like that.

“Within a couple of minutes, I was given a few things to help calm me down and it wasn’t so bad and then once the ambulance arrived, I was getting gas and air and stuff.”

Post-surgery, when everything seemed to be back on track, it didn’t work out as smoothly. In fact, the pain was worse after going under the knife.

“A month after, the pain was really bad. For the first six weeks, even before the surgery, I was waking up every night and getting hardly any sleep with the searing pain.

“I didn’t expect that; I thought that once I got the operation it would have settled but it really took a good four or five weeks after that for the pain to really settle.

“It was quite significant in terms of how it disrupted my life. I couldn’t really shower or do anything, I had to lie around a lot and any time I went to get up, the pain all rushed to my leg and to my foot, so it took quite a bit of adjustment.”

Crealey first came into the fold back in 2017, when Armagh were struggling to get a win in the Ulster Championship, never mind go all the way and actually end their Anglo Celt drought.

2026 was the season they finally did that. Following three consecutive decider defeats to Derry (2023) and Donegal (2024 and 2025), Kieran McGeeney’s side eventually got over the line.

Injury didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate the win. Crealey was able to find the middle ground between not playing and enjoying the triumph.

“It is a bit bittersweet,” Crealey said on reflection. “Obviously I was delighted because we’ve been working towards that for years and years and I was proud of everybody.

“At the same time, when you are playing, it’s a different experience. But then there’s people like Ciaran Mackin who missed the All-Ireland win in ’24 through injury and had been through something similare.

“There are people on our squad that maybe don’t get the game time and they’re all in the same boat so you don’t feel sorry for yourself, you just reflect on it that it’s a different experience this time.

“You have to hope that one day you’ll get a chance to win things like that on the pitch. In one way it probably motivates you more, to get back out there and win medals while you’re on the pitch as well.”

By the time the Ulster title did arrive, most of the Orchard County panel already had Celtic Crosses in their back pockets.

Crealey was a key component in 2024 when Armagh climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand. His huge turnover on Cillian McDaid late on just one of the standout moments that day.

Having won the All-Ireland, was Ulster still as important as ever? “When I first started in 2017, back then we were in Division Three and you aspired to win the All-Ireland, but Ulster was the first kind of attainable thing.

“Once you get beat in three finals in a row, there’s more significance placed on it in your head. Winning Ulster was brilliant, it felt amazing. It took a bit longer than we thought with the penalties and everything, so it was a nice relief.

“It’s a funny one because when we won the All-Ireland, that was the end of the season and we could go and do what you want. With Ulster, we had another game in two week’s so the celebrations weren’t as big as the All-Ireland but it was brilliant.”

Bring Sam back to the Orchard County certainly eased the pain of those Ulster final losses, but the regrets still linger.

“I think you’d torture yourself if you reflected on all the wee moments in those games,” Crealey added.

“How many more medals we could have if the wee small moments went our way.

“We could have been going for four in a row, but it wasn’t to be. We’ll take the one for now anyway.”

When the Ulster final comes back around in 2027, Crealey will hope he’s at least battling it out inside the arena instead of sitting on the sidelines watching on.

There’s no definite timeline for his return to action but he’s back on his feet, back walking comfortably, and the chase begins once again.

“It’s really hard to tell,” he said of his recovery.

“A couple of the doctors at the time were thinking I could struggle to get back but it’s all really symptom based and pain-based.

“If you do your ACL, say, there’s a nine-month timeline that everyone follows but with this, I really don’t know. I’m hoping to be back running this side of Christmas anyway.

“I hope to be playing next year at some stage, but when that will be, I’m not really sure.

“I’ll just have to see how it goes but I have a lot of gym work to do to get to the level where I’m fit to run and once, I get back running, then we’ll see where it goes after that.”