Duffy: GAA to insure players in US after Mc Govern case

THE GAA have agreed to insure players travelling to America to ensure another Mark Mc Govern case does not emerge.

Mc Govern travelled to San Francisco to play football on a J1 for the summer, but suffered a severe brain injury after receiving a blow to the head in an off-the-ball incident and was in critical condition after also contracting pneumonia and an infection from the MRSA bug.

His condition has since miraculously improved and he underwent rehabilitation both in America and at home since his return. However, his travel insurance did not cover contact sports and his family were left with medical bills of more than €1m.

“The solicitor went through his travel insurance and he wasn’t covered,” Mark’s sister Grace told BBC last night.

“But if we have to pay the bill for the rest of our lives who cares, we have Mark and to me that’s priceless.

“You can’t put a price on someone’s head.”

However, GAA Director General Páraic Duffy has decided the association should make sure another incident like this does not happen and vowed they would take on the responsibility of insuring the players.

“The Mark Mc Govern injury forced us to look at the situation. With medical costs being so high there it’s an issue we just can’t ignore. I suppose, sadly, it took the Mark Mc Govern case to draw it to our attention.

“The injury itself was horrific and the circumstances were similarly so but the injuries and challenges that his family have to deal with, we’d like to avoid that situation arising again and I think we’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to ensure players going to the States are properly covered is if we take responsibility for it here.

“What we hope to achieve is that any player going to play on a sanction as Mark did will be covered by insurance from here.”

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte applauded Duffy’s decision and added that, if they hadn’t stepped in, very few players would go to America and the game’s future would be at risk in the States as a result.

“I’ve no doubt you’d have strong reservations about letting your child go,” he said.

“It’s a high-risk game if that’s going to be the case and we all know how quick and fast those bills can mount up.

“If that happened to a number of other players you just couldn’t stand up to it and it’d stop people going out there to play football.

“This is a real statement of intent that we do want to promote our games outside of Ireland.”