SO what is it with sport in general and Irish soccer in particular? Why can it never be easy? Why can’t Eddie O’Sullivan’s team roll into France and blitz all around them on their way to the Rugby World Cup final and a deserved win over New Zealand?
Why can’t Stephen Staunton’s side go to Slovakia and preserve a 2-1 lead with just seconds to go, then take the point they were well capable of getting from Prague to give themselves a really good shout in the Euro qualifiers?
Why can’t Kieren Fallon go straight from winning the huge race that is the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe to a hero’s welcome in his native Clare instead of taking a detour to London to appear before a magistrate on race fixing charges?
Why can’t the first press conference of an international soccer week revolve around Robbie Keane’s ability to hit the back of the German net with the same ease with which he knocked two goals past Liverpool last Sunday?
Why can’t the nation be upbeat and positive and supportive of the soccer team’s manager and his players ahead of a huge game against one of European football’s superpowers?
Why? Because we’re Irish, that’s why.
So on Tuesday, instead of talking about tactics and formations and injuries we spent 15 minutes on the side of a pitch in Malahide talking to Stephen Staunton about Stephen Ireland’s perilous psychological state.
Young Ireland, you see, is not in a good place right now. We knew as much in Slovakia last month when he told the FAI that his grandmother had died and they hired a private jet to get him home.
A day later it turned out that both his grandmothers are alive, and the only reason the 22-year-old wanted to get home was because his new partner — not the mother of his two young kids by the way — had suffered a miscarriage.
In his confused state of mind Ireland, from Cobh, Co. Cork chose to tell lies to his international team manager, an act he has since apologized for many times over.
Not that Ireland should be apologizing for anything right now. He is clearly a troubled young man who has already asked his employers Manchester City if he could take a year out to sort out his mind as he struggles to come to terms with the demands of professional football.
What’s important here, as Staunton said on that pitchside on Tuesday, is Stephen Ireland’s health. The game against Germany on Saturday night is irrelevant next to his well-being, and nobody knows that better than Staunton, who only buried his father Tom days before he flew to Slovakia.
When Bill Shankley suggested, many years ago now, that football is more important than a matter of death, he did so with his tongue firmly in his cheek.
Football can never be more important than a young man’s mental and physical well being. It can never mean more than his health or the emotional wealth of his personal life, no matter how much he earns at Manchester City or how much we expect of him as an Irish international.
Some day we will get to write football related stories about Stephen Ireland once again. I can only hope that day is someday soon.
In the meantime I have a sneaking feeling that Ireland might just scrape a win on Saturday night. Not that it’s important or anything like it!
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