Football

Players will be pressured into concealing Covid symptoms warns Sean Cavanagh

Seán Cavanagh, Joanne Cantwell and Oisin McConville with the Sam Maguire and Liam MacCarthy cups at the Giants Causeway as they launch RTÉ's Championship coverage. Picture by Sportsfile
Seán Cavanagh, Joanne Cantwell and Oisin McConville with the Sam Maguire and Liam MacCarthy cups at the Giants Causeway as they launch RTÉ's Championship coverage. Picture by Sportsfile Seán Cavanagh, Joanne Cantwell and Oisin McConville with the Sam Maguire and Liam MacCarthy cups at the Giants Causeway as they launch RTÉ's Championship coverage. Picture by Sportsfile

FORMER Tyrone star Sean Cavanagh fears players will be pressured into concealing potential Covid-19 symptoms once the inter-county season gets into full flow.

With the National League getting under way tomorrow - seven months after the pandemic forced its postponement - the virus is already wreaking havoc after coronavirus outbreaks in the camps of the Fermanagh, Armagh and Donegal footballers, as well as Kerry and Wexford’s hurlers.

And, with the tight schedule creating the potential for counties being forced to default from the Championship, Cavanagh feels the “scary” situation of players hiding symptoms in the lead-up to big games could come into play.

“It probably creates a culture now that players will almost be encouraged to hide potential symptoms of sickness and illness, which is kind of a scary thing,” said the three-time All-Ireland winner, who was speaking at the launch of RTE’s live coverage of the inter-county season.

“If I was a county player going into a game and I started to have symptoms, and they could be Covid-related, I know in my head - because I was one of these guys that just always wanted to get on with it and never wanted to diminish my chances or the team’s chances - I know I would be feeling ‘right I have to conceal this’.

“That’s the scarier thing for me, that there’s going to be pressure on players. I have no doubt, either individually or from a team perspective, that as they start to have symptoms to go and keep away from people, don’t disclose close contacts and that’s where it could get ugly.”

Already this week we have seen Fermanagh’s appeal to have Sunday’s crunch Division Two clash with Clare postponed, leaving them faced with the possibility of fielding a much-weakened side in a potentially season-defining game.

Given the fluidity of the current situation, it would appear naïve to expect the Championship to run off without any similar bumps along the road.

Yet while Cavanagh believes it may ultimately damage the integrity of the competition, he also feels it will provide an unpredictable edge from start to finish.

“It’ll also throw up what we’ve been hoping for in the last number of years in that it will throw up a lot of unpredictabilities,” said the Moy man.

“Not just with players changing but formations will change, there’ll be much more discussion and onus around how managers set up their teams on any given day… that challenge of watching what would a manager do when they lose a star forward or a star defender because that will create a script that there’ll be less time to set up perfect game-plans and sometimes those game-plans don’t always lead to a great entertainment value.

“So from an unpredictability point of view I’m almost looking forward to the fact that teams won’t have as much time to prepare and there’ll be a lot of in-house or in-game changes required very close to match day.”

The tightening of restrictions north and south of the border in recent days has led to renewed calls in some quarters for the GAA to reconsider going ahead with the inter-county season, at a time when the ground is constantly shifting.

However, Cavanagh’s fellow RTE pundit Pat Spillane believes the country needs sport to “get away from the doom and gloom”.

“The country needs a championship, the country needs sport and the championship over the next 10 weeks is the escape we need,” said the Kerry great.

“It will be a symbol we are trying to fight back in some way against this deadly virus, and I am looking forward to it. It is going to be very different, it is going to be the new normal between next weekend and the All-Ireland final there are 10 weekends.

“Eight of them are football weekends, two League and six Championship - it is going to be helter-skelter, winner on the day. I really can’t wait.”

CAVANAGH SURPRISED BY LACK OF TRIBUTE TO BROTHER COLM

SEAN Cavanagh admits it was “a little bit bizarre” that Tyrone did not publicly pay tribute to his brother Colm following his recent retirement.

Last month the 33-year-old announced his decision to walk away after 13 seasons, and Sean Cavanagh says he was surprised there was no recognition of his younger sibling’s long and distinguished career with the Red Hands.

“Yeah, I was. I have spoken to Colm about it because it was a little bit bizarre because he was a serious servant. It doesn’t overly surprise me because I have seen it before.

“I don’t think we give enough air-time and reflection to some players that have really brought the fight for our counties for long number of years. I saw players who retired after winning three All-Irelands in the late 2000s in a similar position, so it is not just Colm.

“It certainly was a big surprise given the fact he led the fight and showed leadership on the field for the last couple of years, at times almost single-handedly. It was a bit strange.

“It may have been an oversight in the times we are living in, but it was a little bit strange and probably disappointing from our point of view.”