Meet The Queen's Elite Athletes - Maebh Clenaghan

06th, Feb 2024

Kingsbridge Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic works in partnership with the athletes, coaching staff and fitness teams at Queen’s Sport, Queen’s University in Belfast. As we enter the final semester we wanted to shine a light on some of the students and Elite Athletes that we are delighted to support.

Next up is Maebh Clenaghan, Full Time Medicine Student from L/Derry and Elite Athlete (Rugby) at Queen's. 

 

Are you a morning person and if so what’s the first thing you do when you waken up?

Not particularly, but the first thing I do is wash my face.

What’s your favourite meal time of the day and what are you most likely to have on your plate?

Dinner, normally a chicken stir fry.

Is nutrition important to you and if so do you take any health supplements daily?

Nutrition is important, I am not taking any supplements daily, but I should be taking vitamin D.

How many times a week do you go to the gym, what is you least desirable exercise and why?

2-3 times a week, I don’t enjoy split squats, because when I switch, I always feel unbalanced, and pull ups.

Have you ever been injured through your sport? If so, what happened to you and how long were you recovering?

Strained my groin in the last match of the interpros, was out for approximately 5 weeks.

What do you do to relax?

Watch movies and go for walks around the back roads at home.

What other sport do you think you might excel in and why?

I’d love to give AFL a try. There is a club in Belfast, I just haven’t gotten the chance to make a training session yet…

How many hours sleep to you get on average and do you think this is enough?

About 7-8. It depends on what I was doing the day before and what I have to the day after if it feels like enough.

What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?

I can’t think of a really memorable individual piece of advice I’ve been given but I always try and emulate the people I admire, especially at training, in how they work hard themselves and know how to get the best out of the people around them.

Over the next 12 to 18 months what are your overall objectives whilst being on the Elite Athlete Programme at Queen’s?

Continuing improving, so I can continue playing for Ulster and hopefully get some more national representative caps.

What do you love most about being a student on the course?

Being able to meet other students who are also trying to balance training and studying and getting some tips on how best to manage everything from people who are already doing it.

Who are your biggest Influencers in Sport and in Life?

In sport, my Women’s National Talent Squad (WNTS) coach Pops has been a big influence in how to conduct myself at training and how important it is to come to training really prepared and ready to work hard for however long the session is.

In life, my family. There are 4 kids in my family and parents always worked hard to allow all of us to be able to go wherever we needed to if that was training or matches and are there to support all of us.

How did you hear about the EAP Programme at Queens?

I played rugby for QUBLRFC last year, while I was taking a gap year, and heard about it through a few different coaches both there and at Ulster.

How do you find the support from Kingsbridge Physiotherapy Clinic and being able to avail of Athlete Profiling?

The support is excellent, and the athlete profiling allowed me to share the results with the strength and conditioning coach at WNTS to tailor my programme to target some weaknesses.

What have been memorable achievements so far, and what is in the pipeline for the remainder of the year?

Winning with Ulster against Connacht in the interpros last summer was great and being able to play U20 for Ireland was special.
For the rest of the year, hopefully some more matches with Ulster and an opportunity to play for Ireland again.

And lastly, what is the end goal?

Senior Ireland Cap.

For further information on our services available at Kingsbridge Physiotherapy Clinic, please click here.

If you would like to find out more about the Queen's EAP Programme and other programmes available, please click here.

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