There’s no bright side here.
Cyrus Christie doesn’t take any solace from the fact that he’ll be Seamus Coleman’s replacement – his feelings don’t even come anywhere close to that.
The only positive – one tiny positive – that Irish fans could maybe muster come June is that the stand-in for the country’s best player is probably the country’s best substitute but, honestly, no-one gives a shit about any of that at the minute.
A good man, a hardened soldier, an Irish boy through and through has been cut down for what looks like will be a lengthy, lengthy time and any feelings of sadness or despair are simply in the interests of Donegal’s finest.
A disgusting, sickening and completely unnecessary challenge from Wales’ Neil Taylor saw Coleman stretchered off and that’s all that Cyrus Christie could think of afterwards as he hit out at the Welsh man:
“It was a disgraceful challenge to be honest. I’m gutted for him,” the right back said after the game in an understandably sombre interview. I saw it last year when George Thorne at Derby broke his leg and that [Coleman’s] looked a lot worse than his. I think it puts everything into perspective. You don’t want to see anyone coming out with an injury like that. I’m just in shock, really. I’m gutted for him. He’s a massive player for us, he’s a great leader and it’s a tough one to take.”
Ireland have taken 11 points from five games – having gone to Austria and Serbia already in the first half of the group and if Christie is selected to stand in in the captain’s absence, he has a very clear motive:
“We want to do it for Seamus,” he said. “He’s a great leader, a fantastic captain but, first and foremost, he’s a great man and a great person. For an injury like that to happen to him is unfortunate and everyone here will be gutted for him.”
When Christie got the nod from O’Neill, playing football was actually the furthest thing from his mind. “It’s not the way you want to come on,” the Derby player admitted.
“When they were telling me to come on, I didn’t even move because I was in shock because when I saw his leg, it wasn’t nice. It’s tough. You don’t want to come on in a game like that especially when that’s just happened. I think everyone in the stadium was in shock.”
This article first appeared on SportsJOE.ie
