SEÁN CAVANAGH ON HIS HORROR INJURIES
Cavanagh keen to highlight the wound that hasn’t yet healed
‘IT NEEDS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. IT NEEDS MORE AWARENESS’
ALMOST two weeks from the battered image of Sean Cavanagh being splashed across social media, the former Tyrone captain’s face is gradually returning to normal. The swelling has gone down, cuts and bruises all but disappeared.
As the fall-out continues from Moy’s attritional one-point Tyrone SFC defeat to Edendork – a game that saw more than two dozen cards brandished as well as Cavanagh staying in hospital, he still has reminders. A fortnight later and he is still suffering from concussion.
He’s still prone to the odd dizzy spell and bout of nausea. He jokes that his wife must be sick of listening to him at this stage but beneath the humour, lies a serious issue.
This past week, Donegal dynamo Ryan McHugh withdrew from the remainder of Kilcar’s club Championship after suffering one concussion too many during the course of this season.
In Croke Park yesterday for the Electric Ireland minor star of the year awards, where six-time AllIreland minor-winning manager Galway’s Mattie Murphy picked up a special merit award, Cavanagh carefully side-stepped any controversy, saying that he has yet to see footage of the incident but he does hope that a positive that might emerge from all of this is that Gaelic Games become even more aware that concussion is a serious issue.
‘Unfortunately in a contact sport, and a competitive sport, sometimes injuries like that are going to occur,’ Cavanagh said. ‘I have suffered concussions in the past and probably ignored them, like I ignored certain injuries because I wanted to play,’ Cavanagh said.
‘Everyone wants to play competitive sport, but you don’t want the game to become dangerous. Club football is competitive in Tyrone, there’s no doubt about that. But the only thing you want is that it doesn’t become dangerous.
‘We are going to keep banging the drum [about concussion]. It needs to be taken seriously now. And I think there is more awareness out there and that comes from other sports, especially rugby, and the way they have dealt with the problem. Because as our athletes get bigger and more powerful, the GAA community have to be aware that the hits are going to get harder.’
Cavanagh was player-manager of his club this season, a role he said he enjoyed, but he admits that he was completely unprepared for the explosion that followed the publication of the photo. He insists that he only sent to a private Whatsapp group and it was never meant for public consumption.
‘I was completely surprised by the story that was created. The image that appeared and that everyone has seen by now, I didn’t put that on social media. It came from a private Whatsapp group, so it was unintentional that it went into the social network. It was never meant for the public domain.
‘It has just been about trying to recover the past couple of weeks. The two clubs have released statements and we are just going through the investigation piece now. I still haven’t seen the footage so I can’t comment.’ The image of Cavanagh’s bloody face was held up as yet more evidence that there is a sharper edge to Tyrone club football than any other county, but the three-time All-Ireland winner isn’t buying that.
‘Club football is competitive in Tyrone, there’s no doubt about that. But the only thing you want is for your football not to become dangerous. I would say there are a number of incidents through every county but in Tyrone, we do get a bit of bad PR although sometimes we bring it on ourselves.’
Cavanagh also believes that the release of the ESRI report which shows county players devote 31 hours each week to their team illustrates the need for a creation of a second-tier Championship and he points to his own personal example with Moy to back up his point that it needs to be implemented. And quickly.
‘All the great success I had out there with Tyrone at the elite of the game, my best memory is winning an All-Ireland intermediate championship with my club, because it is something we thought we wouldn’t do. And with players giving up so much time and being so consumed by being a county player, there needs to be a second tier competition, just so Division three and four counties have a realistic chance of winning something here. I don’t know why there’s resistance to that.’