The controversy surrounding the four-year ban handed to 35-year-old Carlow footballer Ray Walker for failing a drugs test has been a bit of a low rumbler over the last few days but this morning Kerry player Stephen O'Brien has said he fully backs the testing regime. Walker has since accepted the ban and said the substance was taken unintentionally but O'Brien says it is absolutely paramount that players know what they're putting in their bodies. "I can only speak from our perspective and our dietitians and those who advise us could not have stressed any more how important the issue of strict liability was for anything you put in your body. Obviously you're not getting tested every game but I can't see performance-enhancing drugs being a big issue but I don't know for sure," he says. Meanwhile, the lack of action at the moment means pitches all over the country are getting an unexpected break and the surface at Croke Park is no different. Pitch manager Stuart Wilson told Paul Keane yesterday that plans for resurfacing may well be put on hold because of the lack of play.
It's fair to say the world is in a strange place at the moment and some of the strangest noises are coming out of the United States. In his column this morning Dave Hannigan looks at Florida's decision to reclassify WWE wrestling as an "essential industry" looks truly bizarre in the face of so many deaths across the country but is also very much linked to Donald Trump's ties with the organisation. "When Trump first jump-started his run for office in 2015, pundits considered the grotesque tone of his outré candidacy and christened it the first WWE presidential campaign. In his bizarro world, no finer compliment," he writes.
Moving back to Ireland and this morning John O'Sullivan speaks to gifted athlete Conor O'Keeffe who has battled depression for many years and now seems to have found his solace – running 200-mile ultra marathons. O'Keeffe has in the past won a gold medal in Taekwondo in the European Championships and fought for an Irish title in Muay Thai boxing, but he says he found these experiences joyless as depression continued to overwhelm him. However, after becoming the youngest ever winner of an Enduroman 200-mile Ultra Run in England and the first person in three years to finish in under the 60-hour time limit (59 hours 45 minutes), he felt free both physically and mentally. Now, this Friday and Saturday he will run around his patio for 24 hours to raise money for Pieta House.
On to soccer and Mauricio Pochettino said last night that he would one day like to return to managing Tottenham after he was sacked in November, just six months after reaching the Champions League final. "Deep in my heart I am sure our paths will cross again. From the day I left the club, my dream is to be back one day and to try to finish the work we didn't finish. We were so closing to winning the Premier League and Champions League," he says. Meanwhile, the UK government has warned that there will be no quick return to action for sport ahead of their meeting with representatives from the Premier League, racing, cricket and rugby tomorrow.
Finally, in our women in sport pages, Sonia O'Sullivan writes that all runners can slow down and be more observant of others while out getting their exercise as she sees frustration building in people out walking and running in local Melbourne parks. Meanwhile, John O'Sullivan speaks to racing driver Nicole Drought while Joanne O'Riordan writes that if Phil Neville backed up his talk, football may well have come home.
