Banner legend Ger Loughnane confirms he is on the road to recovery

The GAA world was stunned to hear the former Clare manager had cancer but thankfully he seems to be winning his battle with leukaemia.

The man who led Clare to two All-Ireland titles in the 1990s was diagnosed with the disease in June last year but in an excellent and in-depth interview in today’s Irish Daily Star Loughnane confirms that he is winning this very difficult battle.

“My form of the disease,” he said “was such that it needed four forms of treatment. Each phase consisted of about six weeks. I’ve completed those four phases. My bloods are now coming  back up again but they are still not up to what they will be when I’m in full total health.

“But they’re at a stage where I can do anything I want to do. I am getting my strength back now and I am going to take it that this illness will never come back.”

The treatment, as you can imagine, wasn’t very pleasant but Loughnane manages to joke about it, especially the food he had to eat during his treatment at St James’s Hospital.

“The last time I was there I was there for 35 days. The only thing I could keep down was Irish stew. I had 35 stews in a row. I never want to see a plate of stew again!”

Loughnane has decided to retire as a teacher and at 58 he now hopes to just get back to living as normally as he did before. And he hasn't lost his no-nonsense attitude either.

“Was it a life changing experience for me? Absolutely not," he said.

Good to have you back Ger.