The tragic tale of Adrian Doherty - a lost football genius
Doherty is one of those names flickering on the edge of a greater narrative, in this case Manchester United’s march to the top of English soccer thanks to the gifted crop of kids who came through at around the same time — Giggs, the Nevilles, Scholes, and Beckham. Doherty might have been one of that group; according to legend, he was a gifted player, but can you trust the legend?
Cork native Brian Carey knew Doherty well from his own time at United. Last week he told me about the kid from Northern Ireland.
“We were both Irish lads, we both liked Bob Dylan, so we had a good bit in common. One time I had two jackets, both the same, so I gave one to him; another time I passed on to him what we’d have called a ghetto-blaster back then.
“Eventually he moved near enough to where I was living, so we’d head in together in the morning and home together after training. I suppose I was keeping an eye out for him, trying to help another Irish guy along. But one place he needed no looking after was on the pitch.”
Carey has a pin-sharp memory of the youngster from the North turning up for a youths game in the United blazer, shirt, and tie (“The full gear, but with trainers on”), while another trip to a tournament was enlivened by Doherty’s music choice.
“We stopped at motorway services on the way to the tournament and he bought a cassette — which tells you how long ago it was — of nursery rhymes. The rhythm was what he was after.
“He loved playing the guitar, though I think the whole ‘liking different music’ aspect to his personality could be a bit overstated. The music that people liked at the time just reflected what the music was at the time; liking Bob Dylan would have been different without necessarily being regarded as weird, say.
“He wasn’t what you would have expected from a professional footballer at the time. That’s a fair description. But he could always get the job done on the field. That’s the bottom line.”
The legend of Doherty is that he was as good, if not better, than his peer in the United set-up, Ryan Giggs. Carey doesn’t disagree.
“Look, there are no guarantees, but all things being equal he’d have made it. On one wing you had Giggs and Doc was on the other, and if anything, Doc was braver. Fellas kicked lumps out of him but he had the ability to ride tackles, to get through tackles and to take the ball and try to go past the same players again. Very brave.
“All the plaudits he’s been getting in recent weeks, those aren’t exaggerated. He really was a terrific, terrific player.”
Carey’s qualifier — ‘all things being equal’ — is significant. Doherty’s career was halted by a cruciate injury. What’s manageable now was a career-killer then.
“If it happened today, there’d be no problem with him coming back. The other night I saw a Bournemouth player who did his cruciate at the start of the year, and now he’s back. Nowadays it takes a matter of months to recover from a cruciate, but back then it took Doc’s career away.”
Carey’s happy the book was written. Doherty passed away at the age of just 26, but made an impression on people.
“The other day I said to my wife, ‘remember Adrian Doherty?’, and she said, ‘Doc?’ She remembered straightaway. It was a cruel shame, what happened to him.”
- Forever Young, The Story of Adrian Doherty, Football’s Lost Genius (Quercus) by Oliver Kay is in shops now.
Girls more likely to suffer from concussion
Why this didn’t occur to me before I don’t know.
We’re all aware of the danger of concussion in sport, particularly with young athletes, but there’s evidence emerging now that in sports which feature boys and girls playing to the same rules with the same equipment, rates of concussion are higher for girls.
Hats off to 538.com’s Christie Aschwanden for puzzling this one out thanks to some recent research in the States which shows that in one study of high school soccer injuries, girls were one and a half times more likely than boys to pick up concussions.
Further research shows girls’ symptoms appear to be worse — by both subjective and objective measurements — and take longer to recover.
Interesting, particularly in the light of US soccer legend Brandi Chastain’s recent decision to donate her brain to science after her death.
Croker was on alert during the Troubles
Last weekend’s bomb scare at Old Trafford was no laughing matter, particularly if you’d shelled out for a ticket, transport, accommodation and so forth.
It did remind me of a story told by a long-time staffer in Croke Park. During the Troubles the authorities in the stadium dealt with phone messages warning of bombs in the building more than once, so they hit on a secret code that would help put personnel on alert in the case of a serious threat: over the PA they’d announce a car parked illegally and give its reg, a random assortment of numbers. This worked well , until the day a patron made himself known to stewards demanding to be left out to shift a car. “Though I don’t know how it got here, I got the train down from Dundalk.”
Federer’s first French Open miss since 1998
Enjoyed a chat with Colm Cooper of Kerry a few weeks ago and during that chat he mentioned his admiration for Roger Federer.
As it happens, yesterday’s French Open began without Federer, the first time he’s missed the tournament since 1998 .
Given the physical demands on these guys, that’s a pretty amazing injury-free run.
