Heary plays part in preparing boys in green for world cup

Meath man Alan Heary has played a big part in helping the Irish soccer team prepare for the Amputee Football World Cup in Culican, Mexico which gets underway on Sunday.
Heary has been the teams’s high performance coach having joined the Irish Amputee Football Association (IAFA) last year. As part of his role he designed a tailor-made training programme for the amputee athletes and through monthly fitness testing the squad members have shown exceptional improvements in speed, agility, stamina and strength.
Managing the Irish team will be Christy McElligott who lives in Ratoath. He helped the found the IAFA along with Simon Baker with the help and support of the FAI’s ‘Football For All National Co-ordinator Oisin Jordan in 2011.
This year the IAFA took on the challenge of preparing a squad of elite athletes to compete in the World Cup in Mexico. The squad is made up of 16 players.
As part of their preparations for the World Cup members of the Irish team met Roy Keane and received some words of encouragement for them.
In an uplifting speech, he spoke of their motivation and their dedication, and the fact that the training they put in up to this point has help them to get where they are, and to remember that once they put the work in they have a chance of achieving success.
Ireland have been drawn in the same group as Brazil, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Their opening game is against Brazil on Sunday