Tipperary captain’s incredible physical sacrifice for Mayo game shows raw beauty of the GAA

This is what it's all about.

GAA people do all sorts of crazy things for their counties and for their clubs. People leave work at 5 o'clock some days knowing they'd be lucky to make it back home for midnight. You could hardly miss a night of training, after all. Others spend any free time they have in the gym, kicking points, coaching underage teams or fundraising and taking all sorts of committee headaches - because someone has to do it. The GAA is physically and emotionally exhausting but people keep coming back and keep doing more because it's who they are. There was no way Peter Acheson wasn't playing Sunday's game against Mayo. You'd have had to drag him off the field and lock him out of Croke Park to have prevented the Tipperary captain from giving his all for his county in their bid for an All-Ireland final place. Broken hand or not.

"I wasn’t too happy about today to be honest. I actually broke my hand during the week, playing with a heavy enough injection," the midfielder told Newstalk. "I wasn’t too happy with my performance today but the lads were brilliant and it was just a pity we couldn’t do it."

A broken hand, strapped up, injections taken was enough to get Acheson onto the pitch but you could see that he wasn't his usual self. He still persevered through the pain though. For Tipp. He knew, too, that'd be the last shot he'd get at giving something back for a while. If Tipperary thought they were missing enough lads this year, Acheson is taking off next season too and the 26-year-old will be a mammoth loss.

"I was supposed to be gone two years ago but I was convinced twice to stay back," he told Oisin Langan of Newstalk. "I’m glad I did now in fairness. Myself and my girlfriend are going to Dubai. I’m only 26, if I’m gone for a year or two, I might take the boots back out at some stage maybe. "I’ve been playing now for seven years. Look if I don’t go now, I’ll never go. It’s just a pity that this is when Tipp are driving on, it’s a pity we didn’t do it seven years ago. "I’m happy out that I was a part of it and I’ve no doubt that the lads inside in the dressing-room will drive it on."

How could he have not played on Sunday?   https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/749976573382692865 Big interview with Eamon McGee in the latest GAA Hour. Subscribe here on iTunes.