Paul Geraghty will be unavailable to the London senior football team throughout 2012, despite having his suspension halved.
Former Galway star Geraghty, who starred in the Exiles’ prolonged 2011 championship run, found himself hit with a 96-week GAA ban after receiving a red card in the London SF league final.
Geraghty, playing for Neasden Gaels against the ultimate winners Kingdom Kerry Gaels, saw red after he allegedly struck referee Beano Collins. The hefty near two-year ban was proposed, but an appeal was made and the decision trimmed.
Nonetheless, the 28-year-old will sit out all club and inter-county action for the majority of next year, and certainly not get a crack at helping to repea this year’s championship heroics.
London pushed Mayo into extra-time early in the championship campaign before beating Fermanagh in the qualifiers. Waterford, eventually, brought their season to an end.
"It has been a difficult few weeks for the club and the player himself, but we're looking forward now and putting this incident behind us," Neasden Gaels vice-chairman Brian Mulry was quoted as saying by the Irish Independent.