Davy: Drink and substance abuse was problem in Clare

All-Ireland-winning Banner boss Davy Fitzgerald has claimed that alcohol and substance abuse was “a problem” in the Clare senior hurling panel in the middle of the last decade.

Fitzgerald said former team-mates of his “fooled themselves” by consuming drink and other harder substances while operating in the saffron and blue.

Addressing a mental and physical health seminar at Limerick IT yesterday, Fitzgerald heaped praised on the current Clare panel for abstaining from alcohol en-route to last year’s All-Ireland final victory.

“In the mid-2000s in Clare we had a problem with drink and other harder substances. My feeling was that Clare was a social team at the time,” he said.

“I am big time on this because there are a lot of people out there fooling themselves with drink and drugs.

“I mean this, you are fooling yourself, you are absolutely destroying your life. What I have seen some people do for fun lately is absolutely crazy.

“We, the Clare team, have made our own statement that we are going to enjoy our lives.

“From September, October of last year the lads did their own thing, but we enjoyed being around each other. It is something I am very proud of that the lads carried themselves in that fashion.”

Fitzgerald revealed how the Clare hurlers assembled at Bunratty Castle Hotel shortly after his appointment as manager.

A code of discipline was set out and Fitzgerald is immensely proud that no player has since reneged on their word.

“We had a chat about our lifestyle for about three hours at the Bunratty Castle Hotel. I questioned them and I said ‘do we really need alcohol and do you need to take substances that will make you feel better’.

“We talked it out and said ‘why do we need to waste our young lives when we can go out and enjoy ourselves, let ourselves go’.

“We decided we were going to stand up and draw a line under it and say ‘no’. They drank twice in nine months last year and that was their own decision. They were happy enough to do that.

“I remember picking a group of them up after an U21 game. There was 14 of them on our senior panel, we got onto the bus and the bus was rocking, they were singing and dancing, no drink.

“They love each other’s company.”

The All-Ireland-winning goalkeeper also recalled his heart scare in 2009, admitting he feared for his life following the results of an angiogram showing a 95% blockage in an artery.

Fitzgerald had to wait a week to have a stent inserted at the Beacon Hospital in Dublin and did not a sleep in the interim, afraid he might never wake up.

“After one of the games in 2009 I didn’t feel well, there was a tightness in my chest. I went to Dublin to see Niall Mulvihill.

“Three of my uncles on my mother’s side died before they were 40 with heart attacks so I was always wary of this, but Niall said he didn’t think there was a need for an angiogram.

“We did the angiogram and after 15 minutes he said there was a problem.

“He told me there was a 95% blockage in the main artery to my heart.

“Now, after 80% of a blockage you are at risk of a heart attack so you can imagine my thoughts when that news arrived. He said there would be no stent ready for a week. So I was going home with a 95% blockage.

“I didn’t actually sleep for a week.

“At two in the morning the dogs were being walked, at five in the morning the dogs were being walked. I couldn’t sleep. I just couldn’t bring myself to go to sleep because I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up.

“That is being honest. It was in my head constantly that I had a major blockage and the blood wasn’t flowing the way it should have been.”

The maverick Clare boss claimed the heart scare had been prompted by his decision not to continue regular exercise following retirement from the game in 2007.

“I stopped playing in 2007 and it was a mistake. I stopped exercising and it was a mistake. Now I understand the importance of sport and keeping healthy.

“I was saying to myself that I regretted that I went from playing seven days a week to absolutely no exercise at all. Another factor was the pressure I put on myself and that is something I have since dealt with.”

In relation to comments regarding alcohol and substance abuse, Clare chairman Michael McDonagh last night said: “I wasn’t aware of any issues. I did not become chairman until the end of 2012 and wouldn’t have been aware of anything that happened in 2011.”