Irish vice-captain Ciara O’Brien has been forced to announce her retirement from international hockey due to injury after amassing 156 caps in the green shirt over the past nine years.
O’Brien has suffered from a degenerative, arthritic condition in both knees over the past year and her decision has been based on medical advice.
She said of her decision: “I was determined to overcome my injuries and play a role within the squad at the upcoming Europeans in August. However, I have had to consider the long term implications of continuing to train and compete at international level and have unfortunately been forced to make the decision to retire.”
O'Brien has been a stalwart of the Irish defence in recent year, playing in the 2002 World Cup in Australia as well as three European Championships, including a fifth place finish in front of a home crowd in Dublin in 2005.
Following a glittering underage career where she captained the Irish U-16, 18 and 21 teams, she earned her first cap under Riet Kuper against England in 2001 and racked up 50 caps within two years. Her 100th cap came against Italy in 2006 and 150th against Korea in 2008.
Current national coach Gene Muller led the tributes to one of Ireland's great: “Her 156 international appearances make her one of the most capped players in Irish hockey history.
Following a glittering underage career where she captained the Irish U-16, 18 and 21 teams, she earned her first cap under Riet Kuper against England in 2001 and racked up 50 caps within two years. Her 100th cap came against Italy in 2006 and 150th against Korea in 2008.
Current national coach Gene Muller led the tributes to one of Ireland's great: “Her 156 international appearances make her one of the most capped players in Irish hockey history.
"She has been enormously influential in our team, and was a very consistent and effective international performer. Her attitude and approach was always professional and her service to Irish hockey is greatly valued. I wish her well for the future.”
Irish manager Sally Ann Fanagan added: “Ciara has had a fantastic international career over the past 9 years. During all that time she has been a model professional, setting herself very high standards in both her preparation and her application to international duty. She will be sorely missed within the squad.”
Irish manager Sally Ann Fanagan added: “Ciara has had a fantastic international career over the past 9 years. During all that time she has been a model professional, setting herself very high standards in both her preparation and her application to international duty. She will be sorely missed within the squad.”
9 comments:
Sad to see you finish with the Irish team Ciara but what a fantastic career. You should be very proud of your excellent achievements. Well done and enjoy the retirement (a few 'lemonades' watching the bro's. at cricket?) Bacchus
You should be very proud of all the achievements and honours throughout your international career Ciara. Enjoy your retirement!
Congrats on a fab career Ciara!
Sorry to see you retire Ciara - we will miss you both on and off the pitch - also we will miss you mum and dad too!We've had some great times over the years = been some places too!! Good luck in the future!
Ciara, you have been a great ambassador of Irish hockey.
On behalf of Railway, where it all began, I wish you well in your retirement and wish you nothing but the best for the future ,Linda
Its sorry to see such a good player retire at such a young age.
Will this be the first of players who started high levels of physical training at a very young age.
With the senior national teams having so many very young players, who are now being selected at ever younger ages.
Will we see players developing 'early onset arthritis'in their mid to late 20's. If this happens will the coaches, administrators, parents, who push kids at very young ages feel that it was worth it to damage the kids at this very young age.
Plus will insurance companies in the future, cover sporting injuries at such low premiums or 'early onset arthritis', I have a feeling that they will not as they are off setting the risks that occur for older people on the young.
But if sport playing kids start claiming at ever younger ages high level sporting people will start to encur far higher premiums due to the high 'risk' the companies are now taking on.
july 18 , 7:13am -
what are you on about??
In reply, I work in the medical field and over the last number of years we have seen an increase in young players appearing for surgery and being diagnosed with arthritis in their early to mid 20's.
This is down to players training on the wrong surface and starting very intensive training at far too young an age and when they are not physically able.
Young players do not make decisions on how often or how hard they train, it is parents and coaches who do this, so they have to take the responsibility.
Hockey is not the only sport that this is happening in, but is a worrying trend throughout sport.
The prospect of a player having arthritis and needing knee or hip replacements in their early 30's is a frightening prospect.
A great deal more care needs to be taken with young players and with their physical development.
I say this as a parent and having a child who had to stop playing at 20 due to my neglect, I did not monitor closely what the club and school had been doing.
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