Traitors contestant praises Andy Moran who trained him in Leitrim
He was banished from the Traitors as a faithful and now he has opened up on his severe injury sustained while playing Gaelic football. Donal Casey also spoke about Andy Moran’s influence when he was managing his team Leitrim.
Casey described in an interview with Balls.ie how he applied for RTÉ show The Traitors Ireland.
He was recovering from a broken neck at that time, and alone at home, lying aching in pain, and he thought “Sure why not, what’s to lose? obviously thinking I’d never get into it,” Casey admitted.
He was playing inter-county football for Leitrim until an injury changed his life forever.
It happened during the county final with his club: “Three quarters way through, I ended up colliding with my own teammate. It was a fifty fifty between the two of us. I went down in for it, caught his hip, laid back. Physio came on. There was no way I was coming off even though I knew instantly, there’s something seriously wrong and ended up winning the championship first time ever. It’s probably the biggest day ever for people but even the day after celebrating, I couldn’t hug people, this was going on.”
He had to go home at some stage and got a scan. And then everything went sideways, as there were fractures on his neck and then Donal was lying in a hospital bed.
“I was fearful I might become paralysed, it was that serious,” Casey explained.
“I went for the show because of it. I thought this is my life finished. I’ve no football. Football has been my life. Literally my whole life. I know nothing different. I needed something big to change,” he stated.
Casey credits Mayo GAA senior football manager Andy Moran for ‘pushing us to do different things’, when the Ballaghaderreen man was managing Casey’s home team Leitrim.
“He said there’s a lot more out there for us.”
And Casey added, he’d give up the medal he won that day he got injured to train with the lads again.
“I miss it so much like mourning a life, it’s tough.”