Laois dual star Healy caught in crazy Covid limbo with county future in jeopardy
COMMUTING from London to play for Laois always had its complications, even when the world was a somewhat normal place, but Cahir Healy finds himself left out in the cold amid Covid-19 with his inter-county future in doubt.
The 33-year-old has regularly travelled home from his base in Richmond, where he works as a primary school teacher, to play for club and county for the past eight years. He is often described as the busiest GAA player out there, given the frequent-flyer miles he clocks up.
Having recovered from a knee injury suffered in early spring, Healy had hoped to line out for Portlaoise in the recent Laois SFC, but quarantine restrictions made that impossible as he watched their title dreams slip away from afar, while his county dream could also be over.
When his phone buzzed last month with Mike Quirke on the other end, he had a fair idea he would be deemed surplus to requirements in the current climate.
However, a “mad situation” would have left him clear to play in this Sunday’s crucial Division 2 tie away to Fermanagh.
“Mike said to me ‘I know you’re not able to come home and play with Portlaoise so it’ll be the same for Laois. So we’ll just have to plough on without you. I just said in jest ‘No, count me in. I can’t play against Westmeath but I can come back and play against Fermanagh’,” Healy said.
“It’s mad how there’s not an allisland approach when I can do things like that.
“If Cavan were in our group, you could play against Fermanagh but not against Cavan, mad stuff really.”