‘Disappointed’ Kavanagh dismisses rumours of Galway role

James Kavanagh has dismissed speculation he will be switching his inter-county allegiances to Galway this year.

The 27-year-old two-time All Star nominee announced last week that he was withdrawing from the Kildare panel, as his wife Linda is expecting their first child and the couple look to complete the construction of a new family home.

That house is in Milltown, in his wife’s native Galway, and it is this connection, allied with the fact that he has applied for a work-transfer from his Garda base in Crumlin to the west, that has led to speculation that Kavanagh might throw his lot in with Alan Mulholland’s crew.

This speculation is wide of the mark according to the international rules forward. The good news for Lilywhite supporters is that he does not consider his Kildare career to be over.

“There is nothing there with Galway at all,” Kavanagh said in the Kildare Nationalist. “It’s obviously going to be said because I’m moving to Galway and leaving Kildare but there’s nothing in that at all.

“I am disappointed to be leaving the lads I have trained with for a long time. A bit of you feels that you’re leaving them down. But I have to make a decision and I feel I’ve made the right decision for now. Whatever comes down the road, we’ll see but this is the way it has to be for the moment.

“Linda’s due our first child at the end of February and we’ve a house as good as built down here in Milltown and with me being on shift work in Crumlin as well, it was all becoming a bit too much for me.

“I just feel that I couldn’t give 100% at the moment and this level, it’s all or nothing.

“I wouldn’t consider myself retired. I just need to take a step back. I’ve been travelling up and down the road to Galway the last couple of years and it was tough but I was managing it. But circumstances have changed now.

“I just feel I have come to a stage now where I need to get a few things sorted and down in concrete before I can go back and get going again.”