Player hip ops proving costly for county boards

County Boards are providing financial assistance to players hit with five-figure medical bills arising from hip surgery.

Players going under the knife for hip ailments are being landed with medical bills in excess of €10,000, with the GAA’s player insurance scheme providing maximum cover of €4,500. The GPA insurance product provides an additional top-up of €1,500, leaving the player to foot the remaining costs totalling over €4,000.

GAA insurance officer Sinéad Quinn said many players did not have private cover given the current economic climate and turned to club and county boards for assistance. She added that there had been a considerable spike in the number of insurance claims for hip surgeries in the latter half of 2013.

“If a player has private insurance they can only access the players injury fund if their health insurance doesn’t cover a portion of the loss,” said Quinn. “If a person has access to private health insurance, personal accident policy, employers medical payment scheme or national health insurance, they need to access that first. The injury scheme is only for otherwise unrecoverable expenses, but with the economic downturn most people don’t have other cover, they rely solely on the injury scheme. The GPA insurance product then is only accessible to senior inter-county players.

“I’d imagine more frequent that it is the county board who are picking up the bills for serious operations, but that may not be applicable for everybody.”

Executive members of the Kildare, Clare and Wexford county boards, counties where there has been a high number of players undergoing hip operations, confirmed they had provided financial assistance to affected inter-county players.

Nine members of Jason Ryan’s Kildare panel have gone under the knife since October with Niall Kelly, Eoin Doyle and Eamon Callaghan all receiving hip operations. Kildare treasurer Martin Whyte revealed the board financially assisted players who underwent hip operations in 2013.

“Careers are affected because of these bad injuries, you only do the best you can for them,” Whyte noted. “It is difficult financially but you have to do it, you might have to run a special event like a fundraiser depending on how things were.”

Clare treasurer Bernard Keane said the board endeavoured to ease the financial burden on inter-county players from costs related to operations. Footballer Joe Hayes, along with hurlers Darach Honan and Conor McGrath have all undergone hip surgery dating back to December 2012.

“Each case is different, but we do our best to help them out, of course. It depends on the case and the circumstances. The surgeries are expensive and each case is different, but we like to feel that we are helping.

“Funds are tight, but we do help every player as best we can.”

Wexford secretary Margaret Doyle said the board have always covered the medical expenses of any player injured while serving in the purple and gold.

“Each case is different, but we have always sought to help out players. Finances are tight but you have to look after the players.”

Doyle pointed to last December’s fundraising challenge for Tomás Waters, jointly organised by senior manager Liam Dunne and the Wexford board, as an example of lessening the financial hit to an inter-county player following surgery.

Waters spent 48 days in hospital during the summer, going under the knife on a five occasions after complications following his initial knee surgery.

“It was unfortunate for Tomás as he is self-employed and his business suffered as a result of his time spent in hospital. We look after ever player pulling on the Wexford shirt.”

Cork’s Patrick Kelly, Damien Cahalane and Jamie O’Sullivan have all recently had surgery on hip complaints, but the Cork County Board did not wish to comment on any financial arrangements between the board and players.