GRAHAM GERAGHTY ACCEPTS his playing days are probably behind him and Meath will have to line out against Dublin in the Leinster SFC final without him.
The talismanic forward was coaxed out of retirement by Royals boss Seamus McEneaney last year and later joined Banty’s backroom team after he suffered an Achillesi injury.
This year, suffering a similar breakdown — but with the other Achilles — the 39-year-old now reckons the curtain has fallen on his career, for the final time. When asked, ahead of Sunday’s provincial decider against the All-Ireland champions, if he had any chance of featuring at Croke Park he said: ”To put you straight, no there isn’t.
“It hasn’t healed up well enough to be even training. I’m disappointed, I would love to be out there, that’s the worst thing, being half right and just not able to participate but it’s great to be out there anyway.
“[The injury recurred] just after the O’Byrne Cup and the game against Westmeath in the league we trained the following Tuesday night and the pitch was frozen, the ground was probably too hard and it flared up. It had been coming right and then flared up again and it’s just I suppose at my age as well it is very hard to get these things right. If I was going to have trouble I thought it would be with the one I tore last year but it’s the other one now. I think if one goes the other compensates a bit for it. It’s just sore the whole time now.”
Geraghty now reckons his time in the spotlight is over and his role as selector has helped him transition over the white line.
“It would nearly be a miracle if I do [play next year],” he told reporters in Croke Park earlier. “I’d love to play but I’d have hope fo0r this year if we could see we could get a run but it’s disappointing it’s not that far away but just not good enough you’d be able to push someone else down the pecking order that is fit to play who justifiably should be on instead of me.
“Over the last couple of months while you’d be taking part in training a small bit you’d always be putting your selector cap on and looking at players instead of concentrating on your own game and what you should be doing so it has given me time to stand back and look at who is going well or who should be on or what we should be doing,” he adds.
