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11th February 2022
04:55pm GMT
23 September 2001; Michael Donnellan and Kieran Fitzgerald, left, of Galway lift the Sam Maguire cup following the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Galway and Meath at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile[/caption]
The bombing corner back broke onto the scene for Galway as an attacking defender, something which wasn't very common in 2001, and almost straight away made a lasting imprint on the game.
He won the Sam Maguire with the Tribesmen at just 20 years old, and the following year was the full back when the Galway u21s won their All-Ireland also.
Life seemed perfect for the Corofin native, until his girlfriend lost her long battle with cancer, at the age of just 25.
When he had first met Mairéad Meehan, she had already begun her fight against the disease, but it didn't make it any easier when the finality of death finally hit.
"When I met her, you would not know she had that trauma behind her," said Fitzgerald.
"Over the years, she had to have surgeries of various types. Following the surgeries, she would have undergone various different types of treatments, radiotherapy, chemotherapy."She never let that hold her back and she had a personality that was so full of energy, enthusiasm and drive for life. She didn’t allow it to get in her way.
"We didn’t let it overpower us. We were always aware it was there, she was always aware it was there but we didn’t really talk about it unless we had to talk about it. There was always a cloud of an upcoming scan or a test looming."Soon after, football didn't seem as important and in 2011, after a one-ssided battle with Monaghan's Conor McManus, Fitzgerald had had enough of inter-county football. https://twitter.com/SportTG4/status/1491908156376887296 "I found time by myself was really tough. I found it really hard to come to terms with how somebody could be there one minute, and gone the next. The finality of that, I struggled with for years.
"I wasn't mentally prepared or ready or able to play football. I was afraid to let that go, I was afraid to step away from football because I was afraid of being alone really, to be honest with you. "I struggled with form during the following years. It compounded my sense of sadness.Leaving the county scene felt as though a "cloud was lifted" and the red-haired full back started to use his free time more positively. Soon, he found love again. Then in 2015, when many would have assumed his best footballing days were behind him, he led Corofin to the promise land of the All-Ireland club final.
Fast forward to 2019, and Fitzgerald is still the bedrock of his club's defence, unbelievably helping them secure their third All-Ireland club title in a row - the first team to ever do it.
And it was there, at 39 years of age, after playing the full 60 minutes plus two halves of extra time, in Croke Park against an incredible Kilcoo team from Co Down, that the Galway legend kicked his last competitive ball.Explore more on these topics:
