Striker Dillon Sheridan is all set to help Ireland at Paralympic Games

By Alex Dunne

THE Irish Cerebal Palsy football team are all set to head out to Rio for the Paralympic Games this coming Thursday, and for Ballyfermot United’s Dillon Sheridan, the day cannot come quick enough.

“I’ve packed already, just got to get shampoo,” said the eager 19-year-old, who has been capped more than 20 times at international level and scored 13 goals, including scoring four goals in the game against Portugal at last year’s World Championships which secured their place at the Games.

Dylan’s club, Ballyfermot United, held a special going-away surprise party for him over the weekend, and Sheridan remarked that it was “nice to get recognition off all the lads for what we’ve done”. 

The rules for the tournament are slightly different to traditional 11-a side rules, with teams fielding teams of seven and playing 30-minute-long halves.

Throw-ins can be taken underhanded and there are no offsides either, which Sheridan says is a massive difference from the game he’s used to playing on weekend mornings in Le Fanu Park.

Ireland prepared for the games by finishing in fifth place in a pre-Paralympic tournament in Salou, where every team competing in the Paralympics was invited, although Russia declined to compete leaving seven teams vying for supremacy.

Sheridan was the top scorer with seven goals in five games, but he did remark that the boys in green “could have went a bit further”.

His hopes remain high for the Paralympic Games, saying “the side are looking really sharp in training”, and hopes to bring home a medal for Ireland.

“There’s no real point in going unless you’re looking to get gold”, Sheridan remarked, “but it would be great for us to come home with a medal.”

The Paralympic football 7-a-side tournament gets underway on September 8.