Player safety criticism is grossly unfair, says GAA

THE GAA has called suggestions that they are not doing enough to safeguard the health of their inter-county players “grossly unfair”.

Former Armagh captain Jarlath Burns said during the week that the Association should be doing more to ensure that all players at county level are screened to prevent Sudden Cardiac Death. Burns is also a member of the newly-established Medical, Scientific and Welfare Committee and his claim that the group had not yet met since its formation last April have also been strongly rejected by Croke Park officials.

“That committee has actually met three times in the last three months and they have already established a number of sub-committees which in themselves have met a further six to eight times between them,” said GAA spokesman Fergal McGill.

“The members of the committee have put in an enormous amount of work already. In fact, it is one of the committees that the GAA is most happy with. They are constantly liaising with Nickey Brennan who is delighted with the work they have done.”

Some of the top medical names in Ireland are on the committee, among them the chairman Dr Pat Duggan, former Dublin manager Dr Pat O’Neill, Mayo’s Dr Sean Moffat and Prof. Niall Moyna from DCU.

The committee has already liaised with the National Task Force on Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) which was headed by Dr Brian Maurer and the committee is expecting to make recommendations to the GAA on SCD in the very near future, including suggestions on how the Association can best tackle it.

“To this point, the GAA has been working closely in support of the Cormac Trust and has granted money which has been made available for the purchase of defibrillators,” said McGill.

“Ask anyone in any club around the whole country and the word ‘defibrillator’ is a buzz word around the place. To say the Association doesn’t take this seriously is grossly unfair.”