{"id":10197,"date":"2022-04-04T18:23:16","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T18:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=10197"},"modified":"2022-04-04T18:23:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T18:23:16","slug":"i-came-in-and-got-sick-in-the-sinks-at-croke-park-paul-mannions-fitness-battle-after-a-year-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=10197","title":{"rendered":"‘I came in and got sick in the sinks at Croke Park’ – Paul Mannion’s fitness battle after a year away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated at 0800<\/em><\/p>\n

IT\u2019S HALF-TIME in Dublin\u2019s first National League tie of the year. It\u2019s also Paul Mannion\u2019s first game back in a Dublin jersey since 2014.<\/p>\n

After a lively first-half on Kingdom\u00a0debutant\u00a0Brian \u00d3 Beaglaoich, the Kilmacud Crokes forward isn\u2019t feeling so sprightly.<\/p>\n

In the privacy of the Croke Park dressing rooms, he\u2019s hunched over, throwing up into a sink.<\/p>\n

\n Source: Dan Sheridan\/INPHO<\/p>\n

After spending the 2015 campaign in China and Chicago, Mannion is getting to grips once again with the high physical demands of inter-county football.<\/p>\n

He played some O\u2019Byrne Cup football with UCD in early January, but this is different. This is Kerry in Croke Park.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u201cI was absolutely knackered at half-time,\u201d Mannion recalls.\u00a0\u201dI came in and got sick in the sinks at Croke Park. It\u00a0raised eyebrows a little bit. It took a long time to get back up to that level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never happened me before even after the hardest training sessions I\u2019ve ever done in my life, long runs and sprints that never happened me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew after coming back from the year I had I wasn\u2019t in the best of shape. It wasn\u2019t really surprising, it was a bit weird for the other lads, but they knew the shape I was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mannion\u2019s close friend Jack McCaffrey faces a similary battle to build back up his fitness levels in 2017. The 2015 Footballer of the Year stepped away for the summer and volunteered in Africa as part of his medical studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he [McCaffrey] will come back and as long as he trains hard he\u2019ll fit in fine, it won\u2019t be any trouble to him. I\u00a0don\u2019t expect it to be any struggle for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe fitness wise at the start, like I did, but I was talking to him a few weeks ago and he claims he\u2019s in the best shape of his life!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Source: Instagram\/maaanonion<\/p>\n

After his year out, Mannion picked up his second senior All-Ireland title earlier this month. That number might be three had he stayed around last year, but it\u2019s not something that keeps him up at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I\u2019d love a break. I didn\u2019t really expect to have played Dublin senior football for two years anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time it came around it was a welcome break and a chance to explore a bit of the world, learn a language and meeting people from all over the world. It was a great year and I didn\u2019t have any regrets.<\/p>\n

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Advertisement<\/div>\n
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\u201cI was in Beijing and Wuhan. Wuhan I was probably thinking was a bad choice maybe because I didn\u2019t really like the city. I was loving Beijing. No, I didn\u2019t really miss football an awful lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was doing a lot of other things, playing soccer in a college soccer league, playing pool, table tennis like mad \u2013 every day. I was having fun. There was no regret. I was doing a bunch of other amazing things so it was just another experience really.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Delighted with today's win, a stunning 5-2 victory for Beijing-Dublin International! #WeAreGoingUp #Superleague pic.twitter.com\/A8YEIeG4gq<\/p>\n

— Paul Mannion (@Maaanonion) September 19, 2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: Paul Mannion\/Twitter\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be fluent [in Manderin]. By the time I left I was pretty good, holding a\u00a0conversation was fine. I just never really get the opportunity to speak it now, and you need to be\u00a0practising\u00a0it regularly. The same as any other language, you need to be keeping it up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He\u2019s studying for a Masters degree in Digital Innovation at Smurfit Business School, and doesn\u2019t rule out returning to China for work in the future. For now though, he\u2019s happy to be in the business of winning All-Irelands with Dublin.<\/p>\n

Things might have worked out differently. A talented underage soccer player, Mannion was capped by the Ireland schools\u2019 team in 2011. He lined out for Belvedere and Home Farm, before the lure of winning All-Irelands with Dublin swayed him towards Gaelic football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was 2011, the year with the minors, that really made me choose Gaelic. We lost the final against Tipp that year, the same day that the seniors won. And I remember standing on the pitch that day, [thinking] I would love to go on and win a senior.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only a few months later that I was in the under-21 panel with Jim [Gavin], and just followed on from there, and never really thought about going back to soccer after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has he any regrets he never pursued a professional career in England?\u00a0\u201dFor me, I am glad that I didn\u2019t have the opportunity and glad I didn\u2019t go.\u00a0I can see a lot of the lads that did go away from my age group and there is only one left over there now.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo a lot of them are coming back and playing in the League of Ireland and they don\u2019t have college degrees or anything to fall back on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are still holding out hopes to get back across, but that just wouldn\u2019t interest me at all. [I’m] much more happier with the way things have turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Source: Dan Sheridan\/INPHO<\/p>\n

Things haven\u2019t turned out badly for the 23-year-old. After his encounter with the Croke Park sink in January, he flitted in and out of the team before making it back into the starting XV for the All-Ireland final replay against Mayo.<\/p>\n

Mannion was confident enough about his own form to approach Gavin and throw his hat into the ring for a starting place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to one of the [selectors] and he said, \u2018Tell Jim how you feel\u2019. I just initiated it myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to Jim and I said, \u2018I feel ready, I feel I\u2019m flying and if you\u2019re thinking of making any changes I\u2019m confident and up for the challenge\u2019. Then a couple of days before he gave me the nod.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Paul Mannion was on hand to launch\u00a0Elverys Intersport\u2019s #BringTheColour campaign.<\/p>\n

The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!<\/p>\n

Click Here: <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated at 0800 IT\u2019S HALF-TIME in Dublin\u2019s first National League tie of the year. It\u2019s also Paul Mannion\u2019s first game back in a Dublin jersey since 2014. After a lively first-half on Kingdom\u00a0debutant\u00a0Brian \u00d3 Beaglaoich, the Kilmacud Crokes forward isn\u2019t feeling so sprightly. In the privacy of the Croke Park dressing rooms, he\u2019s hunched over,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}