In an emotional interview with the Irish Times, Damien Duff admitted to postponing his son’s heart surgery because it fell on the same day he was due to play with Ireland.
Duff’s son, Woody, was born with a small hole in his heart that required surgery to fix it. The former Ireland international revealed that he had a difficult decision to make when time came to set the date for the major surgery.
They wanted him to be big and strong enough so we had to wait, but the minute he was six months he was booked in. The problem then was that he was actually booked in the day we played Armenia (in a Euro 2012 qualifying game).
That was a really hard time. I was saying: ‘I can’t change my son’s heart operation to play for Ireland.’ It just didn’t sit right with me; I didn’t want to mess with fate.
I was thinking that if we put it back a week, it mightn’t work the next week – it’s just the weird way the mind works – but my wife talked me around and we did it the week after.”
Duff explained that his son recovered remarkably quickly from the open heart surgery. He added that doctors have been more positive about how active Woody will be able to be when he’s older. Duff remarked that he would be able to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue a career as a footballer if he wished.
They’re so strong, young kids. If you or I had a heart op, we’d probably be in for two or three weeks, but Woody got more or less turfed out after three nights. It was bizarre. We were saying: ‘Are you sure?’ We kind of wanted him to stay in, but three nights after open-heart surgery he was out.
Duff is an ambassador for the charity Heart Children Ireland, which is holding a seven-a-side football tournament at Irishtown stadium next Saturday, June 28th, in aid of children with heart problems and also for the children’s cancer charity, Aoibheann’s Pink Tie. For more information, see inter7s.com.
Hat tip: Irish Times
