{"id":24350,"date":"2026-01-07T20:48:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/the-ireland-rugby-social-ian-mckinley-from-accident-to-the-azzurri\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:48:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:48:55","slug":"the-ireland-rugby-social-ian-mckinley-from-accident-to-the-azzurri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/the-ireland-rugby-social-ian-mckinley-from-accident-to-the-azzurri\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ireland Rugby Social &#8211; Ian McKinley: From accident to the Azzurri"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">Available for over a year<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-whitespace-pre-line sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">What does it take to come back from the impossible? Ian McKinley was a rising rugby star whose career was shattered by a freak accident that left him blind in one eye. Most would have walked away\u2014but Ian didn\u2019t. In this episode, we explore his extraordinary journey from despair to determination, reinventing himself as a professional player with protective goggles and becoming a symbol of resilience worldwide. Ian shares the highs, the lows, and what it means to redefine your limits when life changes in an instant.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p0msm5dc\" aria-label=\"Programme Website of Ian McKinley: From accident to the Azzurri\" data-testid=\"programme-website-link\" class=\"sw-group sw-inline-flex sw-items-center sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-text-brevier\">Programme Website<\/span><default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16px\" height=\"16px\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-transition sw-ease sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-ml-2 sw-ml-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><default:path d=\"M21.9,16.9v11.5H3.7V10.2h11.1V7.6H1V31h23.6V16.9H21.9z M18,1v2.6h10.2l-0.5-1.1L11,19l1.9,1.9L29.6,4.3l-1.2-0.5V14H31V1 H18z\"\/><\/default:svg><\/a><button class=\"sw-group sw-text-pica sw-block sw-w-fit sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-mr-0.5\">Show less<\/span><default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"0.75rem\" height=\"0.75rem\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-ml-1 sw-mt-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><default:path d=\"M0 18L16 0l16 18z\"\/><\/default:svg><\/button><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/p0msm5dc?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Available for over a year What does it take to come back from the impossible? Ian McKinley was a rising rugby star whose career was shattered by a freak accident that left him blind in one eye. Most would have walked away\u2014but Ian didn\u2019t. In this episode, we explore his extraordinary journey from despair to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24352,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24350\/revisions\/24352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}