Tyrone’s Covid crisis: ‘Some of them are in poor enough shape. It’s a mess for everyone’

Fermanagh footballer Aidan Breen arrives for the Allianz Football League Division 2 Round 6 match between Clare and Fermanagh at Cusack Park last October. Fermanagh found themselves looking at only 17 players one night when the situation was at its worst that month. Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile

As the Tyrone senior football team and management gathered up for their usual Tuesday night training session in Garvaghey, minus around a third of the panel, they will have taken stock of just how grave their situation has become before they meet Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final on August 21.

Someone who can sympathise with the contingent of players infected is current Fermanagh footballer Aidan Breen. He was confined to his bedroom after picking up an infection last year and found his return to inter-county action extremely difficult with a body that felt the toll of Covid.

“It definitely is very draining. The Tyrone boys whatever way you look at it, even the boys who do not have it and are in isolation, their preparation is up the left,” he explained.

“I feel sorry for them really. The game has been put back six days, but it had to be. It’s still going to be uncomfortable for them.”

He explained about his own experience: “I would have had a severe shortness of breath. I was feeling wheezy for a long time, as if I had been a heavy smoker or something.

“But the other thing is, and this goes for the boys who are isolating, even if they do not have any symptoms whatsoever; if you are locked up on your own, more or less for 10 days, well then the physical preparation suffers a massive disruption.

“And then for them to be expected to go and play an All-Ireland semi-final? What effect does that have? It is going to be a part of your sub-consciousness, sitting at the back of your mind that you might be up against a man who has as much work done as possible to get himself right for such a big game.”

Living close to the Tyrone border, Breen’s ear is attuned to the various reports about players.

“There are some boys who might not have had any symptoms at all and would be 100%. But others, by all reports have it and have been hit a lot harder. I think some of them are in poor enough shape,” he said.

“It’s just a mess for everyone. For management, it’s such a hard situation for them to handle it.”

He adds: “Covid is just part of life right now. It is nobody’s fault for getting it, it just happens now. But they were unfortunate to get it as such a time. It’s almost unavoidable now though.”

Ryan McMenamin found himself looking at only 17 players one night when the situation was at its worst with Fermanagh in October 2020. He has huge sympathy for the management team of his native county.

“Once you look around and only have a few players, even doing warm ups you are counting numbers and can’t believe it. The big thing is player welfare, and there is a fear that when the lads do play and train, how much of an effect will Covid have?

“That’s the great unknown. Some players will be grand, others will take three or four weeks to get over it.

“That’s the big thing I found, not only what they are like physically, but mentally too. And we only found that out when they were put through a tough session.”

But given the vast majority of the Tyrone panel will only be back a matter of days before the semi-final, that is not possible.

“You can do nothing before a game like that,” adds McMenamin.

“It’s all in the lap of the Gods and they will be hoping to see as many players back on the field as possible. Any All-Ireland semi-final you need two weeks preparation for it. It’s a whole other mindset.”

Dr Cathal Collins is a microbiologist in Cavan-Monaghan Hospital and played county football for Cavan for several seasons through the late ‘90s and ‘00s. In his role he has witnessed the ravaging effects of Covid at the severe end of the scale.

He believes the physical effects on players may not be hugely worrying.

“The ones who are isolating because they are close contacts, they are not going to have any effect really from an energy point of view,” he explains.

“I suppose the main thing is the disruption to their plans, it is coming at a very crucial time in the lead up to All-Ireland semi-final.

“But the ones who are infected with Covid, there will be a range of presentation there. Some may not have any symptoms at all, all the way to the more severe end of the spectrums that we see. With the age groups we are talking about here, you are not really going to see that.”

He continues: “The majority of them, if they are symptomatic, they will be mildly symptomatic. Which will obviously take a bit out of them with players being low on energy and having fatigue and so on.

“It’s going to vary, some might be confined to bed and other maybe no more than a runny nose and a headache. And some may not have any symptoms at all.”