‘I NEEDED TO BE TOLD IT IS JUST A GAME’

JACKIE Tyrrell has said his greatest regret in hurling is that he did not enjoy the game enough when he was younger. The nine-time All-Ireland winner is featured in the upcoming series of the TG4 series Laochra Gael, but he admits that he struggled to enjoy the game as a teenager. ‘You have to be conscious of bad days and just moving on from that and talking to people about it helps,’ he said. ‘I didn’t talk to anyone, I didn’t talk to my parents, I just bottled it up and said, “Oh, there’ll be another day, there’ll be another game”. Talk to people. Talk to your brother, you sister, your friends and say, “Look, I’m very down over playing bad” — and by talking about it you realise it is only a sport, it is only a game.’