When Davy Fitzgerald underwent a heart procedure in the summer of 2016, eight years after a similar operation, medics advised the then Clare manager to take some time out.
He followed the orders, to a degree, taking exactly 16 days for himself between departing as Clare manager that September and jumping into the arms of Wexford, on the other side of the country.
Exactly two years on, he has agreed to a 12-month extension in Wexford which means that in 2019 he will be involved in senior inter-county hurling, between playing and managing, for a 30th consecutive year.
That record comes with a small asterisk as his playing involvement with Clare was limited in 2007 due to a row with then boss Tony Considine though it represents remarkable longevity all the same.
"It's nearly 30 years now," Fitzgerald noted with a smile at the launch of the Fenway Hurling Classic 2018. "I was 18 or 19 playing with Clare, did Waterford for three-and-a-half years, Clare for five and now I'm into my third with Wexford. Add that up and it's 30 at the top level, which is a lot. Because you know, every summer is gone. You've no life, that's it, it's gone. But you know what, no regrets on any of it. Absolutely any of it. I'm a lucky, lucky person to be involved at the top level and I know that."
Fitzgerald took 50 days to consider his position in late 2017 after his first season with Wexford and hummed and hawed about things after this year's Championship which concluded with a disappointing All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Clare.
What prompted him to stay was an intervention from a group of Wexford players who travelled to Fitzgerald's Sixmilebridge home and begged him to stay on.
"There was a small bit of deliberation, yeah," the 2013 All-Ireland winning manager said. "There was something else in the pipeline - it wasn't managing another team, I'm not going to say what it was - but something else that I would have been interested in doing, that I was looking at.
"Like, travelling up and down to Wexford 100 or 125 times a year is a tough enough ask. But in fairness what made up my mind was when the lads came down to me.
"After about five minutes, I was sold. They're actually an unbelievable bunch. I couldn't speak highly enough of them."
It's a three-hour trip from Sixmilebridge to the county base at Ferns and it's often well past midnight when Fitzgerald returns to his home after a training session.
"When you're doing that trip so many times....like, I can remember one time earlier this year, whether it was February or March I'm not sure, and I met three or four crashes on the way up," he said.
"The weather was horrendous. There was a month there when it was absolutely horrendous. I'm telling you now, it wasn't pretty driving."
Wexford has clearly caught Fitzgerald's imagination though, piquing his hurling instincts and daring him to dream of Championship glory, a la Limerick.
"When I went down to Wexford, it gave me a new lease of life again," he said. "And it's something I've really been enjoying. I'd love to see if I could just get them over the line. They're such a passionate county, oh my God."
The flat display against Clare at Pairc Ui Chaoimh has done little to convince the doubters that Wexford can realise that All-Ireland ambition, though Fitzgerald reckons the 2019 Championship will be wide open.
"Being realistic, I think there's any one of six, seven teams that could honestly say they have a shot at it," he claimed. "I really believe that, that teams could beat other teams there. You wouldn't probably have picked Limerick at the start of the year but they've really grown as it's gone on. If you look at the last number of years you've had Tipperary, Kilkenny, Clare, Galway, Limerick, that's five different winners. That's a healthy hurling Championship and if you throw Waterford into that you won't be far away from seven or eight teams."
Fitzgerald's Wexford along with Limerick, Clare and Cork will compete in the Fenway Hurling Classic in Boston on November 18. The tournament, in association with Aer Lingus and Fenway Sports Management, will be played under the Super 11s format as in recent seasons.
It will be a small opportunity for Wexford to prove they can deliver on a big stage.
"There's always hope, I always believe that, I 100% believe that," said Fitzgerald of their quest for a breakthrough in 2019. "I remember you thought I was nuts back in 2009 or 2010 when I said, 'Things will change', if you remember that, I said back then that 'Other teams will come'. I always believe that anything is possible. Hasn't it been unreal to see the emotion in Limerick? I'm delighted Limerick won it."
