BY the time you’re reading this I’ll be three days posthip replacement surgery and probably beseeching my better half to bring me another chocolate digestive.

This will be the first time in 25 years I’ll have stopped working for longer than two weeks. It’ll be a weird head space to be in. A bit like ‘Red’ in Shawshank Redemption – you become institutionalised.

Maybe after two or three weeks I’ll start enjoying the separation from my laptop. Who knows, maybe I’ll never write another sports article again and be done with journalism.

Instead, I’ll go for long walks up the Cavehill, take deep gulps of fresh air and marvel at nature.

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Amid the anticipated pain – and crunching on chocolate digestives, Naproxen and paracetamol – it’ll be good to pull back the lens from the daily grind. That part I’m looking forward to.

There’s also this completely inarticulate thought running around my head that getting a new hip will allow me to reclaim my youth; that I’ll be back playing reserve team football before Christmas and I’ll be able to put my left sock........

© The Irish News