In today’s hospital pass, we wonder whether Graham Geraghty can stage a lazarus-like recovery before Saturday’s clash with Louth and if the Arsenal medical team have anything to do with the injury curse wreaking havoc in the GAA at the moment.
Ahead of the busiest weekend in the football calendar to date, the qualifier clash between Meath and Louth stands out even in a series of fixtures that includes Dublin v Kildare, Donegal v Tyrone and Mayo v Galway, for fairly obvious reasons.
Even though we’ll tut, tut, claim otherwise and maybe even inform The Sunday Game of our outrage, all red-blooded GAA fans love a good barney.
With all due respect to those involved, it’s not the quality of football that will be piquing the interest of GAA followers the length and breadth of the country, but the prospect of some form of a dust up, squabble or melee, a term seemingly exclusive to the GAA fields.
What chance of Dessie Finnegan welcoming Joe Sheridan to the edge of the square with a box to the ribs, or Paddy Keenan conveniently inflicting a dead leg on Brian Meade while they contest possession in the middle of the field?
It is the infinite possibilities of a scrap that has most neutral observers watering at the mouth and GAA chiefs anxiously biting their nails with images of last year’s disastrously unjust Leinster Final at Croke Park running through their heads.
With that in mind, the GAA authorities, already relishing the thought of bulging coffers with what will probably be a massive attendance at Breffni Park, are probably rubbing their hands at the news that Graham Geraghty is a major doubt.
The mere mention of the name Geraghty can cause the most genial of opponents to start a fight in an empty room and it is no coincidence that it is his name that has grabbed more headlines than any other this season despite his actual playing time being limited to a brief championship cameo and a couple of challenge games.
The veteran attacker was on crutches last week after an Achilles injury in training, but don’t rule out Geraghty turning up in the stands in a wheelchair and a massive overcoat, only to dispense of both midway through the second half, leap over the fence and deliver a typically show-stealing cameo to guide the Royals to victory. Stranger things have happened.
Mystery curse
Speaking of injuries, some sort of mystery curse seems to have wreaked havoc on the GAA world judging by a quick glance at the stories doing the rounds at the moment.
In the last couple of days alone, Geraghty, his team-mate Stephen Bray, Kerry duo Paul Galvin and Kieran Donaghy, Dublin’s Michael Dara McCauley and speedy Sligo forward David Kelly have all emerged as massive doubts for their respective counties, while in hurling, Dubs defender Tomas Brady has been ruled out for the rest of the season with the knee injury suffered while getting tangled up chasing Joe Canning in Tullamore on Saturday.
It begs the question; did the Arsenal medical team all grab nixers for the summer with inter-county GAA teams? It would certainly explain an awful lot.
