After Jack McCaffrey announced he would not be playing for Dublin in 2016, it was a huge blow for the county.
McCaffrey instead opted to spend the year in Africa as part of his medical studies, missing Dublin’s defence of the All-Ireland.
And he’s not alone. Waterford’s Tom Devine announced that he would be travelling for the summer, as too has Harry Rooney of Meath. Last we heard, his own team-mate Rory O’Carroll was running amok in New Zealand.
Speaking at the AIB launch for the 2017 GAA All-Ireland Football Championship, McCaffrey revealed that he doesn’t have any regrets about missing out on 2016.
“It was a pretty good experience for me. Probably it will hopefully help with the college side of things. Just in terms of the travel and stuff, I really enjoyed it. No, no regrets.”
McCaffrey also was adamant that he wasn’t hung up on not playing for Dublin come August and September when he returned home.
“You look down on the parade before the game and you’re like, ‘it would be cool to be down there’, but once the ball is thrown in you’re just effing and blinding along with everyone beside you. No, it wasn’t an issue at all.”
McCaffrey opened up on how positive an experience it was working in Africa for the year.
“I suppose it’s just you’re grateful that you’re in a very lucky position. You can be a bit sheltered here. Football or study is your big priority and you forget there’s more to life than a lot of these things. So it was quite humbling alright.”
“At the same time you can’t really come back with the thing that you have the weight of the world of your shoulders and not go back to enjoying yourself. It was a really good experience and it’s probably given me the desire to go away again down the line when I’m old and grey and maybe go back and do a bit of stuff when I’m more capable of helping out.”
“But in terms of what you take from it, just to count your blessings I suppose and be grateful for how lucky you are.”
Despite missing the first round of the Dublin Senior Football Championship due to a hamstring injury, McCaffrey is back fit and training with Clontarf and will no doubt be a big name again come summer time.
