Carroll not afraid of the long and winding road

IT’S Tuesday afternoon, and for the umpteenth time this year Offaly hurling captain Brian Carroll is contemplating yet another trip home from his base in Limerick, where he is doing his PhD in Mathematics Education in UL, to his home of Birr.

Tiresome, wearisome, repetitive? Yes, all of that, and yet he can’t get enough of it – the hope for Carroll this week is that after this evening’s All-Ireland senior hurling qualifier against Limerick in Tullamore, he’ll be facing into that journey again next week, and the week after, and the week after.

“That’s the plan, no matter who you’re playing,” he says.