Did Cork turn its back on Diarmuid Duggan

The_Banker

Did Cork turn its back on Diarmuid Duggan?
By Fintan O’Toole

Monday, February 20, 2012

HE’S played with Cork at every grade from Under-16 to All-Ireland SFC semi-finals in Croke Park, but when a persistent hip injury finished defender Diarmuid Duggan’s career, friends in high places were hard to find.

The Ilen Rovers man ended up funding his own operation, and being dead-ended by officials in a bid to recoup some of the almost €10,000 he spent trying to revive his football career and improve his quality of health. His loyalty to his county has left him €7,000 out of pocket, the GPA stumping up €3,000 from its benevolent fund.

Today, Duggan goes public on his situation, not to retrieve some of the money he spent, but as a warning to other inter-county players that, in some counties, nobody’s too bothered when you’re on the scrapheap.

He has also revealed details of an impassioned letter he penned to Cork secretary Frank Murphy at the end of 2010, desperately seeking a resolution to the issue.

In the letter, he writes: “It’s not just my belief, but a commonly acknowledged one that its players should not be “out of pocket” as a result of them dedicating their lives to playing at the highest level and in particular with one of the biggest GAA counties in the country.”

In that letter, he adds: “When I left the panel as a result of the injury, I regret to say that as far as I was concerned the County Board washed their hands completely clean of it, offering no financial help whatsoever. Was it a case that even though I got injured playing with a Cork team, I was no longer needed and therefore not worth the hassle or the money? I find it very difficult to believe and accept the contrary and I’ve always considered myself a reasonable and open-minded person, always trying to see the good in people and situations. Even writing this letter doesn’t sit comfortably with me, but I feel like I’m left with very little alternative such is the enormity of the sum of money of which I am out of pocket.

“Were I to end up getting no financial help, I still don’t see myself as someone who would lambast the GAA at every chance. My whole life has been entwined with the GAA and almost every friend I have is as a result of my association with the games I love. However, now finding myself in this unfortunate situation, it’s certainly far easier to empathise with those who mockingly call the GAA the “Grab All Association”.

Even now, his stance is the same: “I don’t think it is right that you leave an inter-county panel to sort an injury and the Cork County Board then don’t reimburse you. The diagnosis from the surgeon in Coventry was that the injury was brought on as a result of strenuous inter-county training. My injury occurred when I was playing for Cork. I don’t think it’s right that once you’re gone, you end up on the scrapheap. It’s quite a substantial amount of money to be down but that’s not the primary reason for talking about this. I’m just hoping to increase awareness.”

IN July 2008, Duggan was man-of-the-match in Cork’s Munster final win over Kerry. Three and a half years on, he can’t even stand in goal for a five-a-side soccer game with friends.

Damian Griffin, a world-renowned hip surgeon based in Coventry, operated on Duggan in February 2010 and has diagnosed that the injury was a result of the demands placed on him during his inter-county football career with Cork. Duggan had a condition called ‘Femoral Acetabular Impingement’ whereby a lesion or bump on the ball part of the ball and socket joint in a hip jams on the rim of the socket as movement occurs. Intensive training provokes this condition and in his case caused irreparable damage to his hip joint. He is now left with arthritis in his hip and faces a hip replacement in the future.

His career may be over, but the financial and physical pain continues.

Duggan voluntarily left the Cork panel in July 2009 in an effort to regain fitness. The Cork County Board paid for an operation he underwent in March 2009 in Dublin, yet that failed to cure the problem. Determined to get back playing, Duggan then incurred costs of nearly €10,000 in order to find a solution to the problem, but the board have thus far been unwilling to help pay for that.

“Ger Lane was always my initial contact (as Cork football liaison officer) and I told him before I went to England for the operation in February 2010 that I had to get it done. I’d a letter from Dr Con Murphy (Cork team medic) backing that up. I told him how much it was going to cost and I asked if I would be able to get a cheque to cover it. He said he’d try to sort that out and he got in contact with (board secretary) Frank Murphy. I was in regular contact with Ger after that but each time he told me he was having some difficulty in getting it sanctioned but to leave it with him. Eventually the day before I went to Coventry for the operation, I rang him again. ‘Ger, I need this now or I’ll have to pay for it out of my own pocket’. He said he still hadn’t managed in getting it sanctioned for me, that I was going to have to pay for it myself and that they’d try to sort it out when I returned.

“That was when I started to doubt I’d get anything. But I needed the operation for my own health. I felt I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t get it, my quality of living would have deteriorated much more quickly and the need for a hip replacement would have been brought forward. I had no health insurance; I always thought that I’m a healthy young man and anything to do with sport, I’m covered as I’m playing for the county. I’ve since taken out health insurance with a couple of years but obviously it doesn’t help me in this situation.

“I was in regular contact with Ger again after the operation. Eventually I was told ‘I don’t think you’re going to get that’. The county board had said the insurance wouldn’t cover it because it was the same injury as the one for which I had the first operation. When I had the initial hip injury, I reported it and the county board paid for an operation in Dublin to remove torn cartilage which was believed to be the problem. But after a few months of rehabilitation, the injury still hadn’t improved and it became obvious that something else was the problem. For the second operation the county board claimed that because the injury had been reported after the allocated time frame (that the insurance company requires) from when I initially got injured, they then couldn’t claim back for it and they were unwilling to pay for it themselves.”

HIS persistent efforts to find a medical cure for the injury have left him significantly out of pocket. The GPA, through the players body’s benevolent/hardship fund, have given Duggan a cheque for €3,000 but the Ilen Rovers club man is still facing a substantial shortfall of approximately €6,700 with no sign of GAA chiefs reimbursing him for those costs.

Through the GPA, Duggan finally found an organisation willing to assist.

“Conor Counihan did a bit of work for me and he also got onto GAA president Christy Cooney to see whether the GAA could do anything. I was asked to apply to the GPA and wrote out the details of my injury. They said they’d check to see whether I was eligible for their benevolent fund and pretty quickly came back to me with a cheque for €3,000. I was very grateful to the GPA as I felt they didn’t owe me anything. I remember Conor (Counihan) ringing me afterwards and saying it would be great if the Cork county board would even match that amount.”[/quote]

Source: http://www.examiner.ie/sport/gaa/did-cork-turn-its-back-on-diarmuid-duggan-184442.html

The actual letter:

Dear Frank,
I’m personally writing to you to highlight a personal struggle which began over two years ago when I began to experience problems with my hip while training with the Cork senior footballers.

Initially Colin Lane and I myself thought it was just a muscular problem and that it would go away with some physiotherapy treatment and by sitting out the odd training session. I got through the 2008 season still being able to play but by the end of it I noticed that the injury was after deteriorating and that it was now starting to affect me even in my general daily activities. Colin advised me that perhaps I just needed to take about three months of complete rest over the winter and that perhaps, this would suffice.

Unfortunately this didn’t work for me and when we went back training in Mallow at the beginning of 2009, the problem was after getting worse. I was named on the league panel for the first game against Meath but the Thursday night beforehand, I informed Conor I would be unable to even take a place on the bench. I tried various alternative options in the following weeks in an attempt to relieve the symptoms for example other physiotherapists, osteopaths, steroid injections etc., but unfortunately all to no avail.

Then in March 2009, Colin set up a meeting for me with the consultant Eanna Falvey in Mitchelstown.

He immediately knew there was something wrong with my hip so he referred me to a hip specialist in the Sports Surgery Clinic, Santry in Dublin, by the name of Kevin Mulhall. I subsequently met with him and he informed me that he believed I had cartilage damage in my hip and that this was the root of my problem. I had the operation in May and he removed extensive amounts of torn cartilage and both he and I presumed and expected that I would be free of my symptoms and be fit to resume playing football once again.

However, I began to realise very soon afterwards that my condition was no better whatsoever and that the operation had been of no benefit to me.

I then went back to Mr Mulhall and he then proposed giving me an injection straight into the hip joint and thought that this might work for me. Whilst it definitely made a difference for a few weeks, it wasn’t long until the symptoms returned again. The injection merely had a temporary numbing effect on the pain I was experiencing, until its effect wore off.

Once again I went back to Mr Mulhall seeking advice and answers. He basically told me that there was nothing more he could do and that the only thing for me was a major reduction in my activity levels i.e. giving up sport. I then went back to the consultant Eanna Falvey for his views on it and unfortunately his opinion was even more stark. He believed that I’d need a hip replacement in my mid forties and he basically told me that I have no other option but to give up playing immediately or I’d run the risk of bringing that date forward by three or four years for every year that I played on. When probed on it, he couldn’t see any other viable alternative.

I was now at a stage where I was having extreme difficulty even putting on a sock or tying my shoe lace on my right foot, such was the lack of range of movement in my hip. Just before Christmas after exhausting many other possible avenues, a physiotherapist in Bishopstown called David Angland, put me in touch with a group of surgeons in Calgary in Canada who were supposedly world leaders in their field. They specialise in hips and mainly deal with professional sports people with hip injuries. I sent over all my details, x-rays, scans and any other information I had in order to get an opinion on my condition. They subsequently sent back the name of a surgeon in the UK called Damian Griffin whom they believed would be able to sort my problem.

I then set up an appointment with him and flew over to meet with him. He took up-to-date x-rays, an MRI scan and a cat scan, and then physically examined my injured hip. According to him, the condition I had was called Femoral Acetabular Impingement which is a condition where the ball part of my ball and socket joint in my hip was too large for my socket. This caused friction every time I moved my hip which over time began to considerably wear away the cartilage in my hip joint. It was clear to him why Mr Mulhall in Dublin had to remove such a large amount of torn cartilage when he operated previous to this. Under normal circumstances when torn cartilage is removed by a surgeon, players resume playing again shortly afterwards. However, the cause of my torn cartilage and the disintegration of my joint was due to the friction in my ball and socket joint, so immediately after the surgery in Dublin, the cartilage once again started to disintegrate because of this friction. To get to the root of my problem, I needed surgery which involved debriding or filing down my hip bone which would stop the friction and therefore put a halt to further damage to my hip joint. This operation is not performed in Ireland and the surgeon Damian Griffin in Coventry is reputed to be the best in his field in Europe. I have been told I will still need a hip replacement at some stage in my life but that if I do the operation it should delay it by some considerable time. He also claimed that there was a possibility I could even play football at club level for another two years or so, albeit at a considerably reduced level. On the other hand, if I didn’t have the operation, simple things in life such as putting on my sock or shoe to simply walking without a noticeable limp, would become even more difficult for me, while at the same time my hip joint would be progressively deteriorating resulting in the need for a hip replacement at an extremely young age.
Taking into account the medical advice I received I decided to proceed with the operation which was scheduled for February 2010. Sport aside, I genuinely didn’t think I had any option, such was the bleak alternative of needing a hip replacement in the near future if I did nothing. I immediately informed Ger Lane (whom I must add has always been very co-operative and helpful) of my situation and of my decision, both by telephone conversation and email, weeks before I was due to go for the operation. I informed him of the cost of the operation £5,000 sterling (€5,900 approx.) which I hoped would be covered by the county board. He advised me to let it with him and that he would see what he could do. A few days before I was due to travel to Coventry Ger informed me that he had no luck in securing payment at that time for the operation and that I would have to write a personal cheque to the value of €5,900 in order to pay for it if I wanted to proceed with it. (He did inform me, however, that he would keep working even after the operation on trying to secure some financial aid for me). Even though this was a huge sum of money, and a sum which I admit I struggled to get together, I still felt that for quality of life alone I couldn’t back out now. I subsequently had the operation and paid the fee.

The operation in general has been a success for me. The surgeon spoke of three issues beforehand which he would be addressing.

1. He wanted to improve my quality of everyday living which had deteriorated considerably since my days of playing inter-county football not so long before that time. He wanted to, and believed he could improve the range of motion in my hip joint which was considerably hindering my ability to do everyday simple things such as putting on my socks and shoes, stepping over things, walking without a limp, and not being abnormally stiff and sore in my hip joint after even just a brief journey in a car. From this point of view it was a success. I still have some of the above symptoms but certainly not as severe or hindering.

2. He also believed that by having the operation, it would delay the need to have a hip replacement which I would ultimately need. By debriding the bone, I would reduce the friction within the hip joint, therefore reducing the damage being caused to the joint itself and ultimately prolonging its life. According to him, this has been a huge success.

3. Finally, the prospect of being able to return to playing sport at a high level again. He stressed to me before the operation that I would only have a 50-50 chance of being able to go back playing. He said that there had been extensive and irreparable cartilage and joint damage caused as a result of wear and tear over the years. I did manage to go back playing with my club Ilen Rovers during the year but I only managed one championship game and only a handful of league games, as well as sitting out most training sessions. Because of my stubbornness to accept defeat to this injury and because of my love for playing a game which I could almost say, up to now has been the fulcrum around which my life has revolved, I’m going to attempt to play next January and February once again. However I’m extremely aware that the chances are that I will be unable. If the symptoms worsen any little at all, I will immediately stop. From a financial point of view I certainly won’t be able to afford another operation but secondly, and far more importantly, I do not intend receiving a hip replacement for as long as I possibly can.

That is my current situation. As I previously stated, the operation which I paid for in the UK amounted to €5,900. Aside from this, which I didn’t mention or seek financial help for, I also paid the hospital £1,100 (€1,300 approx.) with my personal credit card for the initial consultation which included MRI scans, cat scans and x-rays. As well as this I personally had to pay for flights over and back three times, overnight accommodation, two steroid injections, physio bills, osteopath bills etc. All of which totalled well in excess of €2,500. This gives a picture of how much I am out of pocket; in total, more than €9,700.

As I mentioned earlier, Ger Lane informed me he would keep working on trying to secure some amount of financial help to off-set the cost and he liaised with me quite regularly. Some months later, I was asked to apply to the GPA Benevolent Fund and subsequently I received a cheque to the value of €3,000 from them. I understand that yourself, Ger and Conor Counihan helped in securing this for me and I genuinely appreciate all your efforts in this.

This still unfortunately leaves a shortfall of about €6,700.

I began playing with Cork football teams at the age of 15, beginning with the Cork U16 team, and progressing through to the Cork Minors, Cork U21s, Cork Juniors and finally the Cork Seniors. Since I began, between the various grades I’ve basically been playing almost every year with one Cork team or another until I had to unfortunately quit the panel through injury in July last year, 2009. It’s not just my belief, but a commonly acknowledged one that its players should not be "out of pocket" as a result of them dedicating their lives to playing at the highest level and in particular with one of the biggest GAA counties in the country.

According to the surgeon who performed my operation, Prof. Damian Griffin, the damage that was caused to my hip was as a result of a few years of wear and tear through high activity. My injury first came to light during the 2008 season while being on the team.

It progressively and rapidly worsened over the following months and it eventually forced me to inform Conor in July 2009 that I would have to quit the panel due to my inability to train or play anywhere near the required level or standard that one sets themselves at inter-county level. Quitting was a heart-breaking decision knowing that an All-Ireland final win possibly wasn’t far off; my only consolation being that the injury was outside my control. Prof Griffin believes one out of 10 men either through birth, or at adolescence develop the onset of this condition from which I suffer. However he states that for most men it doesn’t develop until later life with most not realising they have any hip problems until they reach their 50s or 60s simply because they haven’t led an overly active life.

As a respected and influential man in Cork and national GAA circles, I’m appealing to your good nature, your authority, or simply your influence — and perhaps all three — in an attempt to recoup some of the costs I’ve incurred. As I’ve alluded to already, the injury occurred while playing with the Cork seniors and as Prof. Griffin states, the injury came about as a result of the high level of activity associated with training at this level.

When I left the panel as a result of the injury, I regret to say that as far as I was concerned the County Board washed their hands completely clean of it offering no financial help whatsoever. Was it a case that even though I got injured playing with a Cork team, I was no longer needed and therefore not worth the hassle or the money? I find it very difficult to believe and accept the contrary and I’ve always considered myself a reasonable and open-minded person, always trying to see the good in people and situations. Even writing this letter doesn’t sit comfortably with me, but I feel like I’m left with very little alternative such is the enormity of the sum of money of which I am out of pocket. Were I to end up getting no financial help, I still don’t see myself as someone who would lambast the GAA at every chance. My whole life has been entwined with the GAA and almost every friend I have is as a result of my association with the games I love. However, now finding myself in this unfortunate situation, it’s certainly far easier to empathise with those who mockingly call the GAA the "Grab All Association".

I’m not sure what avenues you could explore in trying to help me in my situation but what you can be assured of is my total appreciation of your efforts. Perhaps claiming expenses is one possible way of doing so as I never claimed expenses for the 2009 season right up until I left the panel in July. I’m not sure if this is feasible. I’d appreciate a personal response from you informing me of where I can go from here and in your opinion whether anything can be done or not. Thanking you.

Mise le meas,
Diarmuid Duggan
Kilkilleen,
Church Cross,
Skibbereen,
Co. Cork.
14/12/2010

OAOB

An interesting article and a disgrace to see the situation (both physically and financially) this man is now in as a result of representing his county at the highest level. Cork county board should have to come out and make a statement on this.
I think this is something that is going to become a lot more prevalent in the GAA in the coming years as the physical demands on players are raised even higher and i hope the GPA can work out a better deal for these players from the GAA. Players are the GAA's greatest asset and its about time they are treated with the appropriate respect

Eoghanod

diarmuids a trainer of mine, was is a class footballer,he deservs to be treated so much better than this! sound fella too

obriendo

Cork should support their players when they are injured playing for Cork. I think young players of today don't realise the dmage that they are doing with excessive training and will suffer in the future.

Gael85

Croke Park should be looking after its players better instead of wasting money paying GAA officials such as the President/Director General

Jimbob55

Injured players being thrown to the scrapheap is what it reads to me, Did he have personal health insurance?

ShamoBuc

I was fairly surprised by what I read in the paper today. His first operation was covered by insurance but apparently the time difference between his need for another operation was too long to be covered by the same policy. That's my understanding.
At this point the Cork County Board SHOULD have done the right thing and opened their own purse and covered any further costs, they didn't. It is an extremely sad indictment of the state of affairs that the board did not do the right thing.
Frank Murphy, apparently, washed his hands of the situation, this is simply not good enough.
I hope now this has been highlighted, that the monies due to him will be coughed up.

corcaigh07

Jimbob55 wrote: »

Injured players being thrown to the scrapheap is what it reads to me, Did he have personal health insurance?

sounds to me from the article he got health insurance after the hip injury and therefore isnt covered for his existing problem

Carthy303

http://www.examiner.ie/sport/gaa/cooney-to-probe-duggan-case-184599.html


Christy Cooney says he's going to look into it now. Too little too late for me and you have to wonder would he be acting if Fintan O' Toole hadn't wrote the article in yesterdays examiner. Cork County Board have yet again disgraced themselves.

premierstone

Carthy303 wrote: »

http://www.examiner.ie/sport/gaa/cooney-to-probe-duggan-case-184599.html


Christy Cooney says he's going to look into it now. Too little too late for me and you have to wonder would he be acting if Fintan O' Toole hadn't wrote the article in yesterdays examiner. Cork County Board have yet again disgraced themselves.

Christy Cooney probably wasnt aware like most of us that there was an issue, it was the CCB and Frank Murphy who let the player down, Murphy of course will argue that the CCB have no legal obligation to the player, but I think we all agree that there is certainly a moral obligation, another episode in the infamous career of Frank Murphy, how he ever got in control of such a strong GAA county baffles me.

The_Kew_Tour

premierstone wrote: »

Christy Cooney probably wasnt aware like most of us that there was an issue, it was the CCB and Frank Murphy who let the player down, Murphy of course will argue that the CCB have no legal obligation to the player, but I think we all agree that there is certainly a moral obligation, another episode in the infamous career of Frank Murphy, how he ever got in control of such a strong GAA county baffles me.

Agree, but you could add GAA as a whole on that as the man seems to have so much of say in GAA.

The day he leaves Cork will be good day.

The OP link to story is sad. GAA players need to be protected with little more respect.

OAOB

Carthy303 wrote: »

http://www.examiner.ie/sport/gaa/cooney-to-probe-duggan-case-184599.html


Christy Cooney says he's going to look into it now. Too little too late for me and you have to wonder would he be acting if Fintan O' Toole hadn't wrote the article in yesterdays examiner. Cork County Board have yet again disgraced themselves.

Fair play to Cooney if he does look after him but it shouldn't take a newspaper article to get treated right. Proper procedures need to be put in place to look after player welfare and not just while on the panel but also on these type of injuries which is the body breaking down as a result of dedication to their county

Gophur

No doubt Frank Murphy has himself and Cork Co Board well covered by the "rules".

This is the kid of story that does no favours for the GAA. A thundering disgrace.

The_Banker

Cork County Board chairman Bob Ryan has met with former Cork footballer Diarmuid Duggan to discuss his claim he was not financially reimbursed properly by the board for an operation on his hip, after injury ended his playing career.

The Ilen Rovers clubman last played for Cork in the 2008 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kerry, and dropped off the Rebel panel in 2009 due to ongoing problems with his hip.

After struggling to even play for his club again, the 31-year-old, who is now involved as a selector with the Ilen U21s, was forced to retire from playing at any level.

Duggan revealed earlier in the week to the Irish Examiner that while the board funded an initial operation in a bid to cure his injury, he was left out of pocket to the tune of €7,000 after having a second operation on his hip in England.

It cost €10,000, though the Gaelic Players Association did subsequently contribute €3,000 from their benevolent fund to offset his outlay.

In late 2010 Duggan wrote a letter to board secretary Frank Murphy pleading his case, without getting a response.

Cork chairman Bob Ryan issued a statement today to the Evening Echo in Cork regarding the situation, stating the player and he had a very cordial and constructive meeting in the wake of the story breaking.

“I have met with Diarmuid Duggan and had a very cordial and constructive meeting with him.

“I have agreed to further investigate the situation around his injury and his injury claim.

“There will be no further comment from the Cork County Board until this situation is finalised."



Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/sport/gaa/cork-chairman-discusses-injury-claim-with-duggan-541007.html#ixzz1nDw5Vfi1