Sportspeople will have to sit and suffer in these challenging times

Inside Track with John McIntyre

YOU know there’s something strange going on in the World when you can’t really discern the difference between a Sunday and a Wednesday anymore. We are all in limbo and nobody has a clue how long Covid-19 will continue to affect our daily lives.

No amount of wishful thinking is going to change the short to medium term impact of the Coronavirus. All over the globe, there is widespread chaos and fear, with Italy and Spain bearing the brunt of the disease in terms of fatalities so far.

No country is immune from the havoc being caused by Covid-19, but Ireland is in a better place than most. It hasn’t happened by accident either. Tony Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer, has been an inspirational influence in our efforts to combat the virus, while the Government has risen to the occasion in its handling of the crisis.

Still, the fatalities are rising and thousands of good people are losing their jobs by events outside of their control. Everything about our everyday existence is being compromised and we simply don’t know how long it is going to take to ‘flatten the curve’ or when some form of normality will return.

It doesn’t matter what your off-work pursuits are – be it the opera, the theatre, the cinema, astrology, mountain hiking or sport – it’s all off limits. These are among our interests and pastimes, but pale into significance when families lose their loved ones or end up being laid off. Already the damage to the Irish and World economies is incalculable.

In the overall context of the impact of Covid-19, the absence of sport has become a minor detail. Yet, for all of us fanatics, the past few weeks have tested our patience with no prospect of matches and events in all codes resuming anytime soon.

Assuming Ireland’s strident efforts to curb the virus eventually meet with success come early summer, domestic sport will have the chance of salvaging the season. But for others, like rugby and it’s cross-borders necessities, their prospects of any meaningful competition before the end of the year must be in serious jeopardy.

Maybe, Covid-19 will run its course quicker than is currently anticipated, but for the present we must deal in realities – the prospect of no sport again until deep into the summer. All the relevant stakeholders are desperate to know how competitions and championships will be impacted, but it’s impossible to legislate for anything at present.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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