Premier ambition for Sam
Paudie O’Sullivan on old ground’s perfect farewell
IRELAND striker Sammie Szmodics says he would be “stupid” to turn down a Premier League move this summer.
He scored 33 goals in all competitions for Blackburn Rovers – 27 of them in the league, finishing as top scorer as they avoided relegation from the Championship.
Szmodics also made his Ireland debut in the March friendly draw with Belgium, having been involved before that under Stephen Kenny without being capped.
Sniffing
But Premier League clubs are sniffing around the versatile forward, with Brentford and Luton Town among those already linked.
And the 28-year-old has revealed his dream to play in the Premier League: “When you score 33 goals in a season there’s going to be speculation.
“I want to test myself at the highest level and there will probably never be a better opportunity for me to do that than now.
“Staying at Blackburn is a decision that’s out of my hands because I still have two-and-a-half years left on my contract.
Begrudge
“I love playing for Blackburn, it’s a great football club, but I don’t think anyone would begrudge me a move if a Premier League team came calling.
“It’s my dream to play in the Premier League.
“I’m not saying that opportunity will definitely arise, but I don’t think people could blame me for wanting to play there.” so
DOWN de old Pairc for the endgame. Before they knocked it down.
The 2014 Munster final.
Limerick were the opponents on an emotionally-charged afternoon, as they will be for tonight’s do-or-die encounter for Cork at the new, modern, swanky Pairc.
It’s a decade now since the iconic old Leeside cauldron served up its last marvel, a life-affirming contest for one man and proof there is some justice in life. A player — indeed, a person — who almost lost a leg over a year earlier, and ruptured a cruciate in the midst of the Cork strikes that robbed so many of much — garnered his just rewards. The euphoria of that moment will never leave Paudie O’Sullivan (35) although he’s just gone through major shoulder surgery on a raft of injuries and patched up old war wounds that saw him struggle to sleep for the previous year. That afternoon, though, is forever etched in his brain.
Over 36,000 fans. A sea of red. A bona fide blood and bandages icon on the line — one Jimmy Barry-Murphy, like one of those suave, refined 40s movie stars.
The pressure of no Munster title since 2006, the demolition of Pairc Ui Chaoimh imminent.
Insurance
Sprung from the bench at halftime, O’Sullivan latched onto a ball from Daniel Kearney late on to fire home the insurance goal in a 2-24 to 0-24 victory.
“After what I’d gone through in the previous 14 months, at the time that felt like a perfect ending for me, a culmination of this is where I was,” he says.
“It was almost a reward for the hard work you’d put in.
“The last goal in the old Pairc Ui Chaoimh to secure a Munster final victory for Cork. It doesn’t get much better than that really to be honest. Croke Park is what it is, but for Cork people, Pairc Ui Chaoimh is the one.
“Into the Blackrock end. Dying minutes of the game. God knows how many Cork people in there.
“The feeling, you would never, ever replicate to be honest.”
It came over 14 months after the Cloyne man suffered a horror leg break in a divisional club game.
There were major complications, four surgeries in total, and O’Sullivan suffered “a huge infection.”
One night at Cork training he was burning up and physio Declan O’Sullivan sent him home.
Later that evening he called him — be in St. James’ hospital at 7am. The surgery took place at 9am. O’Sullivan had a drip in his arm that he had to self-administer for 30 days to clear up the infection.
Four times a day, 30 minutes at a time.
“My leg was skin and bones, all the muscle had been drained out,” he says. “The severity was up there. I probably didn’t take it as seriously as I could have. When you look back you hear too many different stories of people losing a foot or a leg.
Infection
“The Washington quarter-back Alex Smith had a similar infection (sepsis that almost killed him). Google him if you’re not against gory details. The horror stories are there.
“I had massive suffering with it to the stage where to be honest I nearly lost my leg. I nearly ended up not being able to play again. I had four operations to get back to that Munster final.”
The incident, he says, was “Something I’d done a thousand times before and a thousand times since.” He jumped for a high ball.
“It was just a freak accident I