The most non-league of reasons for a non-league player.
The Scottish Cup fourth round is kicking off this afternoon with a clash between non-league side Bo’ness United and League Two leaders Arbroath.
But one player won’t be there and, in fairness, he probably wasn’t banking on Bo’ness making it this far in the competition.
As the team news reels out this morning before the 1.30pm kick off, the biggest absence for today’s clash is that of Bo’ness defender, Stewart Devine who misses out because… wait for it… he is on holiday.
He’s not injured, he’s not suspended, he’s just not there. He’s on holiday. Bo’ness are without Stewart Devine who misses the Scottish Cup tie because he is on holiday.
It’s nothing compared to some of the excuses we’re used to in Ireland though and it got us mulling over some of the old GAA classics for missing and cancelling training and matches in the last few months.
And, in fact, we’d rather have the match preview reports say we’re on holidays rather than have the whole tie called off for this cracker that came out of Annacurra in Wicklow.
Remember the text from the Aran Islands manager who called off training for the most island-life of reasons?
Then you had the poor Cork lad who had a perfectly valid excuse, he just gave it out to the world instead of his manager.
But who needs the holiday reason when you can milk the old illegal driving excuse. At least this Mayo club were looking out for their own.
Scotland might’ve beaten us at football but they still have a bit to go before the beat us for excuses.
