Neil Ewing: ‘It annoys me to hear people talking about the sacrifice. To me, it’s living’

Earlier this week former Sligo footballer Neil Ewing called it quits after 13 years at the coalface. Success and silverware eluded him for the most part and he fears that the gap between the game’s elite and the next best will only grow unless Croke Park takes action before it is too late

GOOD FOR THE SOUL: ‘Football encouraged you to be the best possible version of yourself as a person. Physically it kept you in good nick. Even emotionally too,’ says Neil Ewing. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

He played county. Maybe not for one of the big-time names, just like he himself wasn’t a big name, but still, he played county, for over a dozen years, even captained it for a while.

And though the journey was often frustrating, and he’s had and still has words to say about how the GAA could make it less frustrating for those he’s soldiered with and against, and the soldiers who’ll carry on fighting the good fight, when he handed back his gun last week it, was with an overriding sense of gratitude.