Sean Cavanagh withholds judgement until he sees video

By Orla Bannon

Sean Cavanagh says he is withholding judgement on whether the collision which left him with serious facial injuries was accidental or not until he sees video footage of the incident.

The former Tyrone captain suffered a broken nose, concussion, and facial injuries during his club Moy’s senior football championship defeat by Edendork on Saturday.

Cavanagh also revealed he has had “bits of dialogue” with the opposing player but was reluctant to divulge whether he has received a direct apology or explanation about the incident.

Asked whether he believed the clash to be deliberate Cavanagh replied: “I honestly don’t know, I haven’t seen it. That’s the reality of it.”

The game was videoed by the Tyrone County Board who are investigating the incident, and the mass brawl which erupted during Stewartstown’s intermediate football clash with Strabane on Friday night. Due process means Cavanagh is unlikely to be given access until the internal investigation is complete.

“It’s like everything, everyone has an opinion on what happened but I don’t have one until I see it.

I was knocked out, it was a heavy knock. I’m on the recovery route, that’s the main thing.

The incident received widespread national coverage after a shocking picture of the three-time All-Ireland winner appeared on social media on Sunday.

Cavanagh insists the image was not supposed to make its way into the public domain.

“I only posted a thank-you message and then it’s on WhatsApp, I don’t know where it came out of.

“I had sent it to a friend and then all of a sudden it appears everywhere.

That wasn’t for public consumption but it very quickly became that way.

Ironically Cavanagh was speaking at a Sport NI event in Belfast to raise aware awareness of concussion.

“Concussion is something that’s been close to my heart for a number of years so I wasn’t going to duck out just because of this (injury),” he added.

“It’s not nice but look, I just have to deal with it. Concussion is a big part of sport nowadays.”

Reacting to the ESRI report published by the GAA on Tuesday regarding the growing impact of inter-county commitments on players, Cavanagh said: “I’ve watched the game become much more demanding time-wise from when I started back in 2002.

“It’s gone from a four, five-hour week to the 31 hours that’s documented.

“Personally in the past few years I couldn’t have put any more energy or time into it with the career I’ve chosen,” admitted the accountant.

The one thing I wouldn’t want to see is players choose a career that maybe lowers their ambitions to allow them to be county footballers.

“I wouldn’t want to see that happening in the GAA.

“I’d be of a mindset that the best players should play the game — it should not become a sport only played by people who have time.

“I’m not sure the GAA will deal with this. I wouldn’t like to see the game going professional, but 31 hours is practically a working week at this stage.”