Nursing injuries in Seoul

Week 11 (June 11th, 2014)

By the time training arrived on Saturday we had assembled a nice collection of cripples, due to our exertions in China the previous week. Day long 9-aside tournaments can be very physically demanding on the body due to its stop-start nature and as we returned from China on the previous Sunday night many of the players could literally be seen limping off the plane at Incheon International Airport.

It was another hot day on military base for training on Saturday and mid-session some players had to retreat to the sideline to nurse injuries with the help of freezing ice-packs. The rest of us continued with kicking and game practice as we looked to improve on the areas that had let us down in Shanghai. After training our players had the luxury of relaxing in the swimming pool right next to the field. With temperatures in the high twenties, a quick dip in the water was the perfect way to cool off before we headed for a buffet dinner at the nearby Dragon Hill Lodge.

As usual, we met in our Sponsors Bars “Route 66” and “Wolfhound Irish Pub” later that evening where we were joined by an old friend and long serving Seoul Gael who was visiting Korea for a few days. Cummins, notorious for being awfully “quiet” on a football field and buying rounds of Jagers in the Wolf was subsequently the first person to be inducted to the Seoul Gaels hall of fame on Saturday night before he had to jet off on Monday morning.

Back on the field, these days our next game is constantly just around the corner. The second round of the Korean league is already upon us and will be held in Ulsan, this weekend, three hours South East of Seoul. As in the first round, we will take on the two other Korean GAA clubs, Laochra Busan and Daegu na Fianna. Due to injuries and people being away we will travel there with a smaller squad of players, about seventeen men and twenty women just enough for two teams in each code. We will hope to pick up maximum points again and go into the North Asian Games in four weeks high on confidence.

There was some good news at the beginning of the week for the hurlers in the club when fourteen helmets arrived over from Ireland. It is an important step as it means the Mayo and Kerrymen among us can now safely take part with less damaging consequences for the rest of us. Hurling has been difficult to get off the ground here in recent years but we already have a small collection of hurleys and a handful of players who are interested in playing each week.

We are hoping to get in some training sessions over the summer and introduce the game to people over here with a seven aside exhibition game at the North Asian Games. The event is only four weeks away with lots of preparation still required on and off the field.