Olympian Jack says ‘people over last few days have been fantastic’
Olympian Taekwondo star Jack Woolley recovering from mouth surgery

Olympian Jack says ‘people over last few days have been fantastic’

OLYMPIAN Jack Woolley is recovering from mouth surgery following a random violent attack while he was out with friends in Dublin City Centre last weekend.

Echo.ie was first to break the story on Saturday morning that the 22-year-old Tallaght man who recently represented Ireland at the Olympic Games in Taekwondo was violently attacked whilst out with friends in the City Centre shortly after 12.30am on Saturday morning, August 14.

According to a statement issued by Jack on his Instagram page, a gang of 8-12 men and women violently attacked people along the boardwalk near the bridge, to which Jack fell the victim to when he suffered a punch to the mouth resulting in major injuries.

Jack was taken to St James’ Hospital after the attack where he underwent surgery on his mouth and has since come home to recover.

Speaking with Jack on Wednesday, he told The Echo that he is at home recovering after having reconstructive surgery to his mouth where his lip was put back on.

He said: “I am alright, just recovering at the moment. The surgery went well, there was no issues and I just have a few stitches and I am going in to get them out on Friday.

“I was coaching on Monday night, I just did a little bit helping out the lads before they go away next week to Estonia for the Under 21 European Championship, so I wanted to help out as much as possible – I didn’t want to do too much and it’s still hard to talk.”

Jack says that the support and love he has received from people over the past few days has been fantastic but says there are still “trolls” sending negative messages and leaving comments on social media.

“I have my settings on Instagram set that any messages I get, unless I follow them back it goes into a requested folder, so I haven’t really gone through them just because even seeing some of the comments it’s like I don’t want to see the negative ones, so I just stay clear.

“I put up a public thank you for the support and stuff, but I won’t be getting back to everybody because I checked and there are literally over 5,000 messages – it’s been mad.”

In a statement to The Echo shortly after the incident, A Garda spokesperson said: “Gardai attended the scene of an assault that occurred on Grattan Bridge, Dublin 1 at approximately 12:40am, Saturday, 14th August 2021.

“One man, aged in his 20s, was conveyed to St James’s Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries sustained during the incident. No arrests have been made. Investigations are ongoing.”

Jack’s mother Annette told The Echo: “He is in touch with the Gardai and has given statements, but we haven’t heard anything regarding catching the person who did it, but they are looking into it.”

Jack has been posting regular updates on his Instagram page and has reassured people that he is doing fine following the attack.

“That’s what Jack does – he is resilient, and he wants to get on with things. He wasn’t looking for attention by putting up the posts, but he just wanted to create awareness around the fact that this is happening and there was at least six injured that night”, said Annette.

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