Snugboro footballer airlifted to hospital from Currane game

Anton McNulty

A SNUGBORO United footballer was airlifted to hospital after he dislocated his elbow during a football match and was in too much pain to travel by road.
Midfielder Eamon Conway (29) suffered the excruciating injury in an innocuous challenge approximately 15 minutes into the first half of a league game against Mulranny in Currane on Sunday afternoon.
The game was stopped for over ten minutes before the midfielder was stretchered off the field and taken to the dressing rooms. An ambulance was not available from the nearby Mulranny HSE ambulance base, and it took an hour for another to arrive from Castlebar.
Mr Conway was in so much pain that the ambulance crew felt the journey from Currane to Castlebar by road would cause too much discomfort for him, and they called for the Coast Guard helicopter to transfer him to hospital.
The helicopter arrived at approximately 5.20pm and landed on the pitch before bringing Mr Conway to hospital where his elbow was put back into place.
Snugboro manager, Mark Quinn told The Mayo News that such injuries are very rare in football games and that his player was in agony.
“It is disappointing that the ambulance took over an hour to get there … you would not want to be dying. The game was stopped for ten or 12 minutes before we decided to move him off the wet grass. He was brought to the dressing rooms, and I had some Nurofen, which I gave him. He was trying to keep warm, but he was getting cold by the time the ambulance arrived.
“He was in an awful lot of pain, but he was brave as well. The ambulance men said they rarely see [this kind of dislocation]. They would see more ball-and-socket joints, like the shoulder, being dislocated; it’s very rare for a hinge joint to go out,” he said.
The incident, according to Mr Quinn, highlights the need for another ambulance service, such as that one by the Order of Malta, to be on standby for footballers, particularly when playing in rural areas like Achill and Currane.
“It is a player welfare issue,” he said. “Most of the clubs are close to big towns, so you would not need an ambulance at every ground. I don’t know if it would be feasible, but it’s something that should be looked into,” he said.
Conway had suffered a broken foot earlier in the season, and Sunday’s game was his first after he returned from holiday.
After losing one of their best players, the game on Sunday ended badly for Snugboro, who lost the game to Mulranny 6-4.
A spokesperson for the Coast Guard said that while it is unusual to be called to a sporting event, it is part of the service.