O’Rourke on road to recovery but prank left him sweating

Some might call it cruel but at least Paddy O’Rourke can laugh about it now.

At the time, cracking a smile was the last thing he was considering.

Just 24 hours after arriving in Melbourne, he was struck down with a bug that kept him in isolation in his hotel room. It got a hell of a lot worse for the Meath goalkeeper when he received a phone call from the GAA’s director of games administration, Feargal McGill, to inform him Paul Earley was dropping him from the squad due to the illness.