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Tulla soccer players plagued by insect bites


TULLA United soccer club’s B team enjoyed a 2-1 win when they visited Shannon Olympic earlier this month but within hours of the final whistle, many of the players were counting the cost.

That evening, several of the players were suffering from painful bites, while one of them was subsequently put on a type of medication used in treating tropical infections.
Tulla player, Phil Browne said it was only after the game that he discovered he had suffered a number of bites. “They were the itchiest bites I ever had. They were worse than bites I got from mosquitoes in India,” he commented.
Dermot O’Keeffe was part of the Tulla United defence and he was forced to go to Shannon Doc on the Monday night after the game.
“I hadn’t been feeling great on Sunday before the game and then on Sunday night I started to feel the lumps on my legs. Then on Monday I was a lot worse. All my legs had gone red. It was like the spots had joined up and I felt very bad.”
He said that he had been “ready to collapse” by Monday evening and then sought medical attention. He was given medication similar to that used to fight tropical infections and made a recovery fairly quickly afterwards.
Around eight or nine of the Tulla players were showing bite marks from the game when they next assembled for training.
Shannon Olympic chairman, Tony Hanrahan said he wasn’t aware of his club’s players being affected after the game. Mr Hanrahan said that while there are sometimes midges at the grounds, there hasn’t been any real problem. He also said the midges usually disappear “at the first sign of a frost”.
St Senan’s Rugby Club’s grounds are nearby and an underage team were training there on the same day as the soccer match. The following week some parents commented that their children had received bad bites and they were opting to put insect repellent on their children as a result.
The club’s president, Bernie Ryan said while there may sometimes be insects around the ground there has never been any problem with them.
The pests that dispensed the bites earlier this month might have benefited from the very mild conditions that prevailed throughout September and the early part of this month.
One Shannon-based doctor who spoke to The Clare Champion said in recent times there has been a very noticeable increase in the number of people coming to him with insect bites. He also said that in several cases the bites have been “quite severe”.
However, another local doctor said he hasn’t seen any real increase in the numbers of people suffering with bites.

 

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