Sport occupies us for large parts of the day. It's a comfort and a curse at times and even just for us mere fans it can become an all encompassing beast. In that sense we can only imagine what it's like from players and managers when the times comes for them to step away from the game that fills such a large part of their lives.
The Irish News have spoken to a number of former players and managers about what it is like to step away from the game that is their obsession. Interviewees include Joe Brolly, Terence McNaughton and Enda McGinley, but it was Armagh's All Ireland-winning manager Joe Kernan who was the most revealing.
Kernan struggled to come to terms with the void he experienced following his retirement, and spoke to a doctor about stepping away from the intensity of management. To help deal with the change of atmosphere, Kernan reveals his doctor presecribed him tablets:
My doctor put me on a month’s course of tablets. I was lucky because I realised the wee problems that I had and weaned myself off the tablets after two weeks. Those tablets are still in the box. It was obviously a type of depression that I had. I just hit a wall. I was able to cope but there are load of people that don’t get any help or don’t seek help.
Elsewhere in the article, Enda McGinley speaks with regret about a career cut short by injury, and Joe Brolly talks about the hospital pass that ended his career.
It's a very interesting article, and you can read it in its entirety here.
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