Mullingar man Simon to feature for Ireland in Maia

A MULLINGAR man departed for Maia, Portugal on Sunday to join the Irish paralympic 7-a-side soccer team, as they gear up to take part in the 2014 CPISRA European Championships.

Simon L’Estrange - who is capped ten times for the Irish cerebral palsy (CP) team, and plays his club football in Newbridge - will man the goals for the Irish for the campaign, which kicks off tomorrow and runs till August 2.

Drawn in Group A alongside the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark the Irish team will be confident of securing a path through to the quarter-finals with themselves and the Netherlands.

Coached by Derek Kavanagh and Gerard Lynn, the Irish paralympic team won a breakthrough bronze medal at the European Championships in 2010, before suffering heartbreak in 2011, missing out on the London 2012 Paralympic Games by just one place.

Simon, who played gaelic football for both St Loman’s, Mullingar and Shandonagh growing up, joined the Irish team in 2010.