For King and county

TWO days ago, Caoimhin King emptied his wardrobe and made his way across the city of London from Stratford to Liverpool Street Station, from where he caught the Stansted Express to the airport and a flight home.

The planes, trains and automobiles routine had been a weekly grind for the young Meath defender ever since he began his postgraduate teaching course in the University of East London back in October but, in the juggling act between football and college, there was no doubt which would be dropped first.

College could wait. Meath couldn’t. He’ll return to England in September for the final eight weeks that will earn him his qualification and his passport into the job market but he bats away the suggestion that he is somehow going beyond the call of duty by pressing pause on his studies.