Wexford chairman Diarmuid Devereux says the GAA isn't walking the walk when it comes to preventing player burn-out.

It seems almost incomprehensible that the Model County are expected to play the Leinster U21 HC final against Dublin on Wednesday night, sandwiched in between the two SH Qualifiers against Clare.

For Conor McDonald, Liam Ryan and Jack Guiney, this means three championship matches in a week and Devereux points out that players are clearly at risk from over-exertion:

"Do you think it's reasonable for your 19-year-old son to set up a scenario where he may be exposed to five hours of competitive hurling in seven days?," he asks in The Irish Independent.

"I would like to hear what the medical people have to say because the report by Dr Pat O'Neill years ago on player burn-out obviously has no impact whatsoever.

"Nobody has communicated with me on this, but we were told on Saturday evening in Ennis. The county secretary was told by Leinster Council that the game wouldn't go on.

"The reason she was told that was because the people she was speaking to are reasonable people and they made that safe assumption.

"Then Dublin decided that they wouldn't cooperate. I believe the professional people in Leinster Council were doing the right thing and the correct thing in the interests of the welfare of the players and that because a county decided it wasn't what they wanted, we are now in the situation we are.

"Some parent down the road is going to say enough is enough. From what Dr O'Neill is telling us about these horrific injuries that young people are reporting, injuries to their hips and so on, at some stage something is going to give.

"My argument is that, when we sit down to make these decisions, we should be doing a risk analysis. I presume this is the last time I will ever have to hear the words player burn-out officially. The reality is, it's not an issue for us.

"I am only a voice. There is nobody listening. Nobody communicates with you. At the end of the day, we'll go along and play the match and the best of luck to the young Dublin lads and our own lads. I just hope some young lad from Wexford or Dublin or wherever is not hobbling around with a hip replacement as a consequence of it because there is no medal worth that." Tweet

Most Read Stories