Kim Clijsters
Last Friday Graham Geraghty was recalled to Meath football panel and only time will tell if the 38 year-old former All-Ireland winning captain will play any part in the championship campaign this season, where last played in 2008. The good form for his club, Clann na nGael in recent weeks, prompted the Meath manager Seamus McEnaney to invite him into the panel as Meath look to defend their Leinster title in two weeks’ time in Croke Park.
Having last lined out in Meath’s exit to Limerick two years ago in the qualifiers, he has remained active in the ever since, and currently manages Castledaly, in Westmeath.
Should Geraghty be included in the championship campaign over the summer months he will join a lengthy list of sports men and women who have made comebacks to the highest level, following their retirement. Whether the former Meath captain can taste success or even return to those dizzy heights of by gone years, only time will tell with fate also having a hand in the story.
For the most part though, most of these comebacks, either planned or fortuitous, rarely have fairy-tale endings.
In Formula 1 the sport’s most successful driver, seven time world champion Michael Schumacher, announced a return in December 2009 and has yet to master the new technology of the latest racing cars. Indeed, on a personal level he has yet to find the same enjoyment either, making a premature exit from the Turkish Grand Prix, and talking of lost joy.
Since he returned from his three-year 'retirement', Schumacher has scored a total of 78 points, never qualified better than fifth and not been on the podium as yet, although he has been fourth three times. It is now 25 races since he was last seen in the top three finishers and his age shows when Schumacher is the only driver on the grid who took part in the first 'Catalan' Grand Prix 20 years ago. On that day he finished sixth for Benetton in a race won by Nigel Mansell, for Williams.
Schumacher did admit this weekend, however, that he was no longer as fast as he was in his first career, when he won a record number of world titles and 91 grand prix.
"I am pretty sure I explore my absolute max potential, maybe even better because I have more experience," he said.
"Am I as good as was at 25? I don't think so. I cannot be as good. But I can be maybe better in other areas and is the compromise as good as what I used to be, who knows? We'll find out, I'll tell you later."
In 1996 Lance Armstrong was forced to end his cycling career after being diagnosed with testicular cancer and remained away from the sport until 1998. He returned to win seven consecutive Tour de France titles before retiring once again in 2005. Four years he later came out of retirement to seek an eighth Tour de France win in 2009 at the age of 37, but finished in third place overall, 5:24 behind the winner, his Astana teammate Alberto Contador.
In June of the following year Armstrong announced via Twitter that the 2010 race would be his final Tour de France, which was a less glorious experience, suffering a number of crashes that put him out of contention in stage 8. As only he could, Armstrong rallied for the mountain stages but finished his last tour in 23rd place, this time 39 minutes 20 seconds behind winner Alberto Contador.
Armstrong ended his international career after the Tour Down Under last January even though he continued to race in the U.S. with the Radioshack domestic team. In recent weeks however the issues relating to doping, that have doped his later career, have been reignited by former team-mates with allegations now being made by Tyler Hamilton, and Floyd Landis.
In Tennis Kim Clijsters of Belgium retired in 2007 to start a family and returned to the sport two years later to win the US Open that year. The feat was repeated the in 2010 and then down under with the Australian Open title earlier this year. Clijsters still remains a force on the women's tour something her fellow countrywoman, Justine Henin, failed to do in her attempted a comeback. During her heyday Henin won 43 WTA singles titles and seven Grand Slam singles titles, including four French Open titles, one Australian Open title, and two US Open titles.
Clijsters also became the first mother to win a grand slam title since Australian Evonne Goolagong achieved the feat almost three decades ago – at Wimbledon in 1980.
The greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, famously retired from the Chicago Bulls in 1993 only to come out of retirement to lead them to a three-peat of NBA titles from 1996 to 1998. Now owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, Jordan turned 48 last February and has joked about making a return once again.
Having joined a team training session recently it fuelled speculation that he might try another comeback, especially after his Hall of Fame induction speech in September 2009, when he said, "One day you may look up and see me playing a game at 50. Don't laugh. Never say never."
If Jordan returned, he would become the oldest player in NBA history and more than 20 years older than the average player in the league (26.8 years).
More remarkable perhaps, was the achievement of Australian cricketer, Bob Simpson, who retired from Test cricket for Australia in 1968 only to return 11 years later and score a Test century against India - at the ripe old age of 41.
With Graham Geraghty only 38 he clearly has some years left to try to regain the dizzy heights achieved with Meath in 1996 and 1999.
Only time will tell if it proves to be a fairytale finish.
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