Ronan Clarke - Armagh

zetecescort

Best wishes to him, in hospital in serious but stable condition after colliding with a goalpost.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/gaelic-games/33947769

jjdonegal

zetecescort wrote: »

Best wishes to him, in hospital in serious but stable condition after colliding with a goalpost.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/gaelic-games/33947769

Awful news. Wish him a speedy recovery the poor lad.

Nidgeweasel

Just seen this. Jesus, hope he comes through.

Great player.

J Cheever Loophole

It looked very concerning last night after the incident, as Ronan attempted to get to his feet and was clearly unsteady and went to ground. He subsequently remained on the pitch after treatment which I'll have to admit I was surprised at.

My understanding is that whilst there is still obvious concern for his well being at this early stage, that there is hope he will make a full recovery.

My thoughts and prayers are with Ronan and the Clarke family.

yop

Hope he lad recovers. Not nice that.

threeball

There's been a lot of close calls with goalposts over the years. Hopefully Ronan ends up being another close call and makes a full recovery. Fine player in his prime. Why did he disappear from the county scene at such a young age?

Grueller

Best of luck to Ronan in his recovery and my thoughts are with him and his family now.

On a side note, I have seen this happen to a juvenile in our club and the lad spent three days hospitalised after it. It is too common now. A light padded cover on the base of the goal post, up to 2 metres height should be introduced imo. Yes it would deaden a ball striking a post but players would adjust very quickly and might only happen once a match. It would not need to be as clunky as the rugby equivalent either.

tanko

Apparently Ronan Clarke is "stable and in recovery, has been taken out of a medically induced coma and has spoken a few words".
Good news.

BonnieSituation

tanko wrote: »

Apparently Ronan Clarke is "stable and in recovery, has been taken out of a medically induced coma and has spoken a few words".
Good news.

Thank God. Well thank the medical staff actually.

Awful accident.

J Cheever Loophole

threeball wrote: »

There's been a lot of close calls with goalposts over the years. Hopefully Ronan ends up being another close call and makes a full recovery. Fine player in his prime. Why did he disappear from the county scene at such a young age?

Wrecked with injury and probably tried to return too quickly. He has had major problems with both Achilles tendons which required surgery. Came on as a sub for us on Easter Sunday 2010 in Letterkenny against Donegal in the final round of the National League - it was the closing minutes and the game was already won - I'm open to correction, but I believe that was his last game for Armagh and ended up doing more damage than good.

Something similar happened with the other leg playing for his club Pearse Og and again I believe he came back for them too quickly.

The night he received the head injury, he was by far his team's best player and he showed all the movement, positional sense and score taking of old - unfortunately the pace is gone.

I think I said it elsewhere that he was on the same McRory Cup winning team with Sean Cavanagh at St Pat's Armagh in 2000 and in 2002 beat Colm Cooper to the Young Player of the Year Award. Seeing what Cavanagh and the Gooch have achieved puts his loss in football terms into perspective. If he had been born a Kerry man, and had an injury free career, we'd be talking an all time great.

Still, that's all football - great to hear his long term health appears to be more promising.

MfMan

Great news that he should be on the mend. MOTM as far as I was concerned in '02 final.

threeball

J Cheever Loophole wrote: »

Wrecked with injury and probably tried to return too quickly. He has had major problems with both Achilles tendons which required surgery. Came on as a sub for us on Easter Sunday 2010 in Letterkenny against Donegal in the final round of the National League - it was the closing minutes and the game was already won - I'm open to correction, but I believe that was his last game for Armagh and ended up doing more damage than good.

Something similar happened with the other leg playing for his club Pearse Og and again I believe he came back for them too quickly.

The night he received the head injury, he was by far his team's best player and he showed all the movement, positional sense and score taking of old - unfortunately the pace is gone.

I think I said it elsewhere that he was on the same McRory Cup winning team with Sean Cavanagh at St Pat's Armagh in 2000 and in 2002 beat Colm Cooper to the Young Player of the Year Award. Seeing what Cavanagh and the Gooch have achieved puts his loss in football terms into perspective. If he had been born a Kerry man, and had an injury free career, we'd be talking an all time great.

Still, that's all football - great to hear his long term health appears to be more promising.

Armagh have lost some unbelievable forwards from the game at a very young age. Diarmuid Marsden was absolutely sensational when he was in Jarlaths and as a minor and U21 but seemed to disappear completely after a couple of years at senior

J Cheever Loophole

threeball wrote: »

Armagh have lost some unbelievable forwards from the game at a very young age. Diarmuid Marsden was absolutely sensational when he was in Jarlaths and as a minor and U21 but seemed to disappear completely after a couple of years at senior

To be fair threeball, we didn't do too bad out of Marsden. He was a great minor on our great minor team of 1992. He won an All Star in 1999 when we made our Senior breakthrough and then had a great game in our greatest ever day, scoring 0-3 from play - something O'Rourke commented on in the after match analysis when he said "cometh the hour, cometh the man."

He retired from inter county Senior around 2006 but made a comeback in 2007 and was on the team that was beaten by a late Kevin Cassidy goal in Ballybofey and then lost in the first round of the qualifiers in Clones to a last minute Colin Devlin point. I'd reckon he was 32 or so then.

Nidgeweasel

threeball wrote: »

Armagh have lost some unbelievable forwards from the game at a very young age. Diarmuid Marsden was absolutely sensational when he was in Jarlaths and as a minor and U21 but seemed to disappear completely after a couple of years at senior

I always thought Marsden was one of their best players. Oozed class.

That was some inside line of McDonnell Marsden Clarke really. I have no time for Armagh but it is a tragedy really where somebody of Clarke's talent doesn't get a clear run. You need so much luck.

fullstop

Grueller wrote: »

A light padded cover on the base of the goal post, up to 2 metres height should be introduced imo. Yes it would deaden a ball striking a post but players would adjust very quickly and might only happen once a match. It would not need to be as clunky as the rugby equivalent either.

I wouldn't agree with this. I think the issue is that a lot of the posts are still made from some form of metal. Soccer goals are made from PVC or something similar which would likely inflict much less injury in the event of a collision.

rebel girl 15

He is now at home to start his recovery which is great news. He put a post on facebook apparently to thank everyone for their good wishes and the treatment given to him by the Craigavon hospital

zetecescort

appointed Armagh ladies football manager, hopefully well on the way to a full recovery

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2015/1111/741175-armagh-ladies-name-ronan-clarke-as-new-manager/