Cooper assault brought back unhappy memories for Alisha
TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC final
Sunday: Croke Park, 4pm
Cooper was stabbed multiple times in the early hours of Saturday morning after a night out with friends and Jordan, unfortunately, knows what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a vicious, unprovoked attack.
Jordan was walking home with a friend in the early hours of July 14, 2012, when she was set upon by a lone assailant in New York City. She was told she would never play football again but made a remarkable recovery.
Jordan suffered multiple injuries that included a broken nose, a cut that required 43 stitches across her forehead, two broken cheekbones, a broken nose and fractures to both orbital bones. Nerve damage left Jordan blind for two weeks and almost all of her teeth were smashed in an attack that was so savage that the brick used shattered into pieces.
She underwent reconstructive surgery twice and while the physical scars still remain, the mental ones have healed to a large extent.
Jordan, 22, grimaced: “Yeah Jonny Cooper, I heard about it. “It’s crazy, that’s what I mean: it could happen to anyone, anywhere. It’s about your luck. I know myself that I wasn’t actually personally targeted, I just so happened to run into the wrong person.
“I did suffer greatly because of it but I never went through the whole ‘why me?’ stage.
“It happened to me, I got over it, there was nothing i could do about it at that stage.”
Jordan added: “When something like that happens to you, it changes your whole perspective on life and I think it’s definitely made me a better person and better at dealing with things.
“Especially with occasions like this coming up to Croke Park, I’m totally motivated to do it because after two years of suffering, this is the place I deserve to be and this team deserve to be after being my support system and hopefully we’ll use that to our advantage on Sunday.”
New York contest the TG4 All-Ireland ladies junior football championship final at Croke Park on Sunday – and Jordan will return to the Big Apple in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, Ladies Football President Pat Quill is unhappy men’s club fixtures in Cork and Dublin will clash with next Sunday’s TG4 All-Ireland senior final between the two counties.
The Dublin senior hurling championship quarter-finals are down for decision while in Cork, it’s senior hurling semi-final Sunday.
Wexford have already avoided a clash by moving local club fixtures to accommodate their junior ladies footballers but that hasn’t been the case in Dublin and Cork, despite appeals from Ladies Football chiefs.
The main clash in Dublin centres on captain Sinead Goldrick, who will lead the Jackies into battle with holders Cork in the TG4 All-Ireland ladies senior final.
Goldrick’s boyfriend David Treacy is hurling with Cuala on Sunday at 4 o’clock in the Dublin SHC quarter-final against Ballyboden St Enda’s.
Quill admitted: “That’s unfortunate. I’m surprised again because where there’s a will, there’s a way.
“I can’t see why perhaps some of those games couldn’t have been played. “Of course it’s clashing I know with the hurling replay possibly but again, it’s unfair on those people, boyfriends and whatever, not being in a position to come along to support the girls.”
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