The seagull who made a cameo during the All-Ireland football final last Sunday is to be released into the wild after being nursed back to health.
We’d be used to seeing players flying down the wings at Croke Park, but for this particular chap, it was one of his wings that was the problem.
As Galway attacked the Canal End, the seagull could be seen just inside the Armagh half, appearing to be moving very gingerly along the surface.
For an arena famous for the swarms of seagulls flying around the stands, it was unusual to see a bird on the turf, and RTÉ commentator Darragh Maloney explained that it seemed it had injured its wing.
Play went on as the gull appeared to slowly make its way from the Canal End down beyond midfield and into the other half of the pitch.
Amazingly, there came no unfortunate collisions with the roving stars of each side as the play began to swing from end to end.
The seagull finally exited the field of play as an Armagh attack went into the right corner forward position close to where the bird had been loitering for a long time near the sideline. Having drifted back on, video footage showed a stadium official carrying it to safety.
All in all, it took 24 minutes for the bird to leave the action and social media was awash with jokes as well as concern for the injured creature.
The adult herring gull, which had only minor injuries, is now ‘doing well’ and is expected to have a short stay with Kildare Wildlife Rescue before being released back into the wild.
A spokesperson for the charity said: ‘He was helped off the pitch… and will only have a short stay with us before returning to the wild.’
