Donegal’s decorated Michael Murphy the latest sporting talisman to roll the dice a successful return
Just because you live in the Dublin Mountains doesn’t mean you’re far enough away from hearing any of the rumours coming down from
The drive for any comeback on this scale needs to come mostly from the within the player. With five Ulster titles and five All Stars along with his 2012 All-Ireland, Murphy has nothing more to prove. The talk of the new playing rules having something to do with his decision, and Murphy himself was part of the draft process, may carry some weight, but this is not an entirely risk-free exercise.
Dublin's Stephen Cluxton returned to the intercounty fray when more than 40 years old. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho In a sport of sheer athleticism, such as athletics, once that power of peak performance starts to fade it’s never coming back. And as tempting as it must have been for Usain Bolt to extend his career beyond the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, when he was just shy of turning 31, most people will say he choose wisely. When about two years later Bolt touched base with his old coach Glen Mills about the possibility of making a comeback, he was politely told to forget it.
Behind every sporting comeback there is also the question of what price? Lance Armstrong will forever stand out on this one, given his comeback from cancer to win the Tour de France on seven consecutive occasions, from 1999 to 2005, selling 30 million yellow bracelets along the way, before then announcing his comeback from retirement in 2009 when he finished third in the Tour.
“I see the anger in people, betrayal, it’s all there. People who believed in me and supported me and they have every right to feel betrayed and it’s my fault and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologise to people.”
Donegal-Gaa Jim-Mcguinness Stephen-Cluxton
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