Eimear Considine battled through a knee injury to make her return to rugby and knows she couldn't have done it without the support of her family and in particular her husband Dean Ryan. Now retired from rugby, Eimear has spoken with EVOKE about her life away from the pitch with her former Clare GAA ace partner and their two-year-old son, Caolán. The couple is raising their little boy surrounded by sport but just how did they first cross paths? Here's the story of how they met... How They Met Telling EVOKE how she met Dean, Eimear said: 'We met in college, we both studied at the University of Limerick, where I was doing PE teaching and he was doing an arts degree 'He’s from Clare, so I knew of him before that, but it’s funny, his mam was coaching me at the same time we were starting to get together and one day I said something about Dean and she was like “how would you know that?” 'We were trying to keep it a secret for a little while but that only lasted a few weeks and sure she was delighted [when we went public] because she knew me before we going out so there was no awkward meeting the family moment.’ Supporting each other's careers Eimear and Dean have supported each other through their sports careers and continue to do so now that they’re playing for their local clubs. When Eimear went to Canada to play rugby for Ireland in 2024, Dean held down the fort at home with their then one-year-old son. She recalled: ‘He’s retired from inter-county but still plays with his local club and they won a county final last year. It was quite busy last year when I was in Canada. ‘They were at semi-final/final stage and I was gone away so he was single parenting for six weeks while I was playing with Ireland on top of training and working full time.’ Eimear added: 'He's such a good supporter of me, having played himself, and I realise I couldn’t have come back from knee surgery and having a baby without him.’ Raising their son Eimear and Dean welcomed their little boy Caolán in 2023 and are already introducing him to their shared love of sports. ‘It's funny because now with Caolán when he asks “where’s daddy’s?” and I say “he’s at football training”, he knows it’s ok and almost the perfect excuse, any other time daddy’s gone it’s not okay but when he’s at football training it’s ok,’ Eimear said with a laugh. She continued: ‘We’re getting him started from a young age and letting him know it’s normal to be going to football training. ‘When he sees a football, he says that’s daddy’s ball, and when he sees a rugby ball, he says that’s mammy’s ball. Seeing that we’re both still playing sport is important to me.’