When we gave Stephen Ireland our usual Horror Hair treatment last week we thought we were just indulging in a little harmless mickey-taking at the expense of a guy who had clearly had some sort of baldness treatment/hair transplant. When we linked the mystery of his reappearing hair to the mystery of his reappearing grandmothers it was purely in jest. However, it now seems that Ireland’s hair could be the real reason for his departure from the Republic of Ireland squad.
After Grannygate and the eventual story that he had left the squad to join his girlfriend in Manchester after she suffered a miscarriage, it has now been reported that Ireland quit after being ribbed about his new found fringe.
The Telegraph reports: “Now the Irish Mail on Sunday reports that the night before the match two of his team-mates, in a bout of banter that went wrong, pinned him to the floor and tried to see whether the sudden, unexplained growth of hair, where there had been a receding hairline, was the result of a transplant. The FAI deny the incident took place.”