ANTRIM hurling has been dealt a blow with the news that Arron Graffin is unable to commit to the county for the coming season.
The 27-year-old Cushendall captain, who works for a shipping company in Belfast, has plans to go travelling with his girlfriend for an extended period next April.
“I have decided that I’m going to do a wee bit of travelling,” said Graffin.
“Me and my girlfriend are heading away for a wee while to south-east Asia and Australia. We’re looking forward to getting away – it’s something we always talked about doing.
“I pretty much just agreed it with my boss that I will be taking this time away and he was a hundred per cent with it.
“He just said ‘give me a shout when you’re on your way back and we’ll see what the craic is’.
“It’s open ended, we’ll take it as we see it and we’ve put no real time frame on it. But unfortunately I’ll not be available to the Saffrons in 2016.”
Graffin has been involved with Antrim seniors for nine seasons and during that time has had some bad injuries, including a hip problem and a dislocated knee last year. He also sees the time off as an opportunity to let his body recover.
“It’ll give my body a chance to get a wee bit of a break from the tough training and the matches that are involved with inter-county training and get back at it maybe in 2017 or a wee bit later,” he said.
His loss will be keenly felt in Antrim as Graffin conceded that the county are in “a low place” at present. He did, however, take the opportunity to offer words of encouragement and good wishes to his erstwhile colleagues as they begin life under new manager PJ O’Mullan.
“I‘ve been hurling with some of the boys on that panel for up to 15 years and I wish them the best of luck in 2016,” he said.
“And I really hope that they can push on and get a bit of silverware because I think they deserve it after last year’s disappointment of getting relegated out of the Liam MacCarthy.
“We’re in a low place at the minute but, look, there’s great talent in Antrim and there are boys there who can bring us back up to where we need to be – competing with the better teams.
“I really hope that they do well this year and they put in the work and get back into Division 1B and get back in the Liam McCarthy and win the Christy Ring if they can.”
Although he will not be seen in the Antrim colours in 2016, Graffin is still heavily involved with his club, who meet Galway’s Sarsfield’s in the All-Ireland semi-final on February 6.
“At the minute, I’m giving 110 per cent to our club. I’m just concentrating on that and then if that either runs to [February 6] or St Paddy’s Day I don’t know but after that I’ll be getting geared up to head away,” he said.
Meanwhile O’Mullan paid tribute to the departing Graffin.
“It’s a bad blow surely. He has got a lot going on in his life – he’s been injured. A player of his calibre would be a miss to any team.
“When he’s young and before maybe he settles down, it’s the right time to go travelling.”
