Determination! Steri strips and glue to hold Austin Gleeson’s ear together for Under-21 decider

Mikey Stafford

First off, ouch!

Secondly, fair play.

When Austin Gleeson returned to the field of play in Thurles on Sunday wearing number 32 we assumed he had spilled some blood on his usual number six jersey.

Having returned to the field after only five minutes we also assumed it was nothing serious. How wrong we were!

A chunk of the Waterford star’s ear was hanging off after he caught a stray flick of a hurl during the Déise’s comfortable quarter-final victory over Wexford.

Mike Tyson bites the ear of Evander Holyfield in that infamous heavyweight fight. 1997. https://t.co/mApConvHbn

— ClassicPics (@YourHistoryPics) July 21, 2016

Yeah, ouch. Not that Gleeson intends on missing Wednesday’s Munster Under-21 final showdown with Tipperary. Waterford are one win away from a first title at the grade in 22 years and the sideline specialist is not going to let something like a precariously attached ear stop him lining out in Walsh Park.

“I thought it was only a little scratch but the physio came on and told me to put pressure on it. I put pressure on, took it off and then he put a spray and Vaseline on it to try and stop the bleeding,” Gleeson told the Irish Examiner.

“He told me after the game that when I took the pressure off it, there was a big chunk of it hanging. He didn’t want to tell me that on the field, he left it go.”

Other than having a lobe lopped off, Waterford were not pushed too hard by Wexford, winning by 10 points in the end, and afterwards Gleeson went home and watched the highlights before trying to get to sleep.

“I went home and watched The Sunday Game, I tried to sleep but it didn’t really work out too well,”Gleeson said.

“Any time I turned over, it was shooting up. I took two paracetamol. The pain wasn’t too bad – it was any time I turned, I flicked off something and it would start throbbing and feel like a heartbeat in my ear.”

If sleep is an issue, surely lining out for another hour of hurling three days after the incident could be a bigger one? Not at all, Gleeson, whose ear is currently being held together with steri strips and glue, is currently on the hunt for some suitable attire.

“I’m not 100pc sure yet. I’ll have to get some protection for it – a new fashion statement!

“One of the lads in the club wasn’t far off the same kind of thing and had to wear something like an ear muff.”

May we make a suggestion.