Keith Fahey given compassionate leave

Francie Barrett

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20342742

Birmingham City and Republic of Ireland midfielder Keith Fahey has returned to his native country on compassionate leave for an indefinite period.

The news follows the 29-year-old's withdrawal from the Ireland side to face Greece on Wednesday.

And Birmingham confirmed on Twitter: "Blues midfielder Keith Fahey has returned to Ireland for the time being on indefinite compassionate leave."

Since joining in 2009, Fahey has made 142 appearances for Blues.

The one-time Aston Villa youngster has also played for St Patrick's Athletic and Drogheda in the League of Ireland.

Sad to hear, could have done with Keith last night against Greece. I know his father died from cancer this time last year, perhaps he is homesick? Anyway, let's hope he can get back to football quickly.

MD1990

could be depression maybe
i wish him well good player

ionadnapokot

Hope he will be back soon. I wish him well.

Kiwi_knock

The fact it is "indefinite" makes me quite worried. Wishing Keith all the best. Has been a legend in a Birmingham shirt, hope to see him wear it again soon.

gimmick

MD1990 wrote: »

could be depression maybe
i wish him well good player

Could be anything. Depression seems to be a catch all these days.

It is not good to speculate one way or other.

PhlegmyMoses

I never mind a bit of speculation in these cases. I'm a nosy ****, though.

Mr.Nice Guy

Nice of the club to put the player's interests first. Best of luck to him.

redzerdrog

I know he had his problems with drink while he was with Drogheda havent heard anything since though

GLaDOS

Hopefully he returns soon. Have enjoyed watching him go from LOI to England and making the International side, scored an absolute belter in one of the first LOI games I attenedent so made an instant impression .

SantryRed

MD1990 wrote: »

could be depression maybe
i wish him well good player

What the fcuk?

The_Kew_Tour

MD1990 wrote: »

could be depression maybe
i wish him well good player

:mad:

Insect Overlord

SantryRed wrote: »

What the fcuk?

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

:mad:

What's with all the anger? It's just a suggestion, and it's hardly meant as an insult.

The_Kew_Tour

Insect Overlord wrote: »

It's just a suggestion,

What!!!?

BOHtox

What sort of people speculate on a player's personal life?

jesus... I hope he sorts it out and gets back to doing what he does best! Quality baller!

Turtyturd

Insect Overlord wrote: »

What's with all the anger? It's just a suggestion, and it's hardly meant as an insult.

It is something that has to be brought into the open, but it's ridiculous that it's the go to thing whenever someone wants to speculate as to what the reason behind a piece of news like this is.

Dave0301

While I don't agree with speculating about the reasons for Fahy's compassion leave, I don't get the anger about the depression comment?

It is no worse than speculating that he has a drink problem, physical ailment or even a family illness.

Insect Overlord

Turtyturd wrote: »

It is something that has to be brought into the open, but it's ridiculous that it's the go to thing whenever someone wants to speculate as to what the reason behind a piece of news like this is.

See, now that's a post that I can make sense of. You're probably right as well. It'd probably be best to wish the man well, applaud his club for looking after their player, and then respect his privacy.

Getting angry and posting (effectively) empty messages/smileys isn't going to help anyone.

SantryRed

Dave0301 wrote: »

While I don't agree with speculating about the reasons for Fahy's compassion leave, I don't get the anger about the depression comment?

It is no worse than speculating that he has a drink problem, physical ailment or even a family illness.

People shouldn't be speculating.

The_Kew_Tour

Dave0301 wrote: »

While I don't agree with speculating about the reasons for Fahy's compassion leave, I don't get the anger about the depression comment?

It is no worse than speculating that he has a drink problem, physical ailment or even a family illness.

Speculating can just make things worse. Maybe he does not want go public and if speculation goes into over drive then thats not fair if theory is untrue.

Common sense really.

Isn't it dodgy speculating on something like this on a public forum?

Poor taste too tbh.

sprinkles

I really don't see the problem with people speculating - provided it's not in the papers etc. It's natural to speculate about the reasons behind something like this, stating for definite is something different. I don't think any poster here has done so in a malicious manner. The anger towards certain posters has been ridiculous imo.

In anycase, I hope he sorts out whatever it is that he needs to sort out and if he needs help I hope he gets it. Cracking player. Big fan of him.

corcaigh07

Fair play to Birmingham

LuckyLloyd

MD1990 wrote: »

could be depression maybe
i wish him well good player

He could have physical health issues
He could have mental health issues
He could have addiction issues
He could have a genuine family issue that requires his presence at home
A family member / girlfriend / friend may have recently passed
Or any of the other multitude of reasons that cause people to be let off work for a period from time to time

Look around your offices / places of work people. If you're in a company long enough you'll notice people disappearing for a few weeks from time to time. HINT: it's rude to pry and stupid to guess.

Grr, /rant.

Hopefully he'll be back on the pitch doing his thing soon.

born2bwild

Aenaes

sprinkles wrote: »

I really don't see the problem with people speculating - provided it's not in the papers etc.

So we can all sit here spouting whatever nonsense we think it might be but if a tabloid newspaper suggested a reason then we could all rightfully call it a "rag of a newspaper"?

I really don't go for these kind of threads or moral outrage but it's been called compassionate leave and I'm sure there's a reason for not releasing the precise information. Last thing I want to see is the same thing that happened to Stephen Ireland and his girlfriend.

Anyway, hoping to see him back playing soon.

Dave0301

SantryRed wrote: »

People shouldn't be speculating.

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Speculating can just make things worse. Maybe he does not want go public and if speculation goes into over drive then thats not fair if theory is untrue.

Common sense really.

Oh no, I fully agree that it is poor taste to speculate on reasons for it at all. I just thought that speculating it was depression was the reason it hit a nerve and not other causes which I found odd.

Hopefully though it will all be sorted out for the better.

elefant

Dave0301 wrote: »

Oh no, I fully agree that it is poor taste to speculate on reasons for it at all. I just thought that speculating it was depression was the reason it hit a nerve and not other causes which I found odd.

Just seemed an absolute shot-in-the-dark to me, which made it rather strange.

MD1990

SantryRed wrote: »

What the fcuk?

what is wrong with my previous post
you'd swear by some of the comments that i insulted him or something

theoneeyedman

Best of luck lad....hope he gets his problems sorted out and gets back to playing well again.
I'm surprised the depression comment stirred people up and a throw away comment about him having a problem with the drink gets away Scott free.

MD1990

BOHtox wrote: »

What sort of people speculate on a player's personal life?

jesus... I hope he sorts it out and gets back to doing what he does best! Quality baller!

but i didn't speculate on his personal life

Turtyturd

MD1990 wrote: »

but i didn't speculate on his personal life

'Could be depression' is speculating though.

NIMAN

Doesn't really concern me what the issue is, but I hope he is back and playing regularly again, a good player to have around the Ireland squad.

Plus always held him up as a great example of how much a LoI player can achieve when trying to persuade others to support their local team.

dreamers75

NIMAN wrote: »

Plus always held him up as a great example of how much a LoI player can achieve when trying to persuade others to support their local team.

MD1990

Turtyturd wrote: »

'Could be depression' is speculating though.

yes but it was not about his personal life
the op mentioned his father passed so i said he might be suffering from depression
don't see anything wrong with what i said

BOHtox

MD1990 wrote: »

but i didn't speculate on his personal life

I didn't quote anyone in particular. You seem to be very defensive for someone who didn't do anything wrong.

Turtyturd

MD1990 wrote: »

yes but it was not about his personal life
the op mentioned his father passed so i said he might be suffering from depression
don't see anything wrong with what i said

But depression is a personal thing, and an aspect of his personal life.

Anyway my gripe isn't with you but more that depression is the first thing thrown about when people hear news like this.

sprinkles

Aenaes wrote: »

So we can all sit here spouting whatever nonsense we think it might be

Yes. It's a discussion board. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Aenaes wrote: »

....but if a tabloid newspaper suggested a reason then we could all rightfully call it a "rag of a newspaper"?

I never used the phrase "rag of a newspaper"!? My point was that if a newspaper (and I'm not just limiting this to tabloids either) was to publish a story with these guesses it would at best be rather sloppy journalism and at worst libel. Either way, it would be insenstive.

I merely said that this is a discussion board and people are naturally going to speculate as the what "compassionate leave" may mean. No one knows except Keith and a select few around him (I presume). Noone was making personal accusations against him. Given the huge pressure these guys are under and the recent high profile cases of depression within the sport it would seem that that is a fairly plausible guess - and it's just that; someone, who is not connnected in any way with Keith (another presumption on my part), making a guess. Noone was making personal attacks against him. The anger towards people merely stating that it could be depression is mind boggling. It could be almost anything. The fact is noone knows. I think that speculating is pointless but it's not a crime worthy of such scorn.

Aenaes

Never said you did but that term is easily bandied about here whenever a newspaper does anything the slightest bit against what people think is right.

I never mentioned anything about a personal attack either. I just don't see how it's acceptable for it to be talked about on here but the media shouldn't mention it. It's silly idle gossip and it might be in the media because of the interest you and others show in it. Then we might get a scenario like Stephen Ireland's.

sprinkles

I'm not interested in it. I actually said that I find the speculation to be pointless, like all celebrity gossip imo. I do however take exception to people getting angry and annoyed at someone speculating. That too is utterly pointless. People have a right to speculate whether you agree with it or not.

This has gone way off topic now.

cournioni

Fair play to Birmingham for giving him his leave. I always liked him as a player, watched him a few times while he was in the LOI with St Pats and Drogs, hope everything is ok with him.

Frisbee

As someone has pointed out, wildly speculating as to why he is on compassionate leave is hardly compassionate. Especially considering there's probably a decent chance he has a family member/mate who uses boards.