Mystery surrounds Kildare GAA player who broke Gladiator II star ...

7 Nov 2024

Kildare Now

As the latest Paul Mescal Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator II hits Irish cinemas on November 15, a question looms over the Kildare star's sporting past after he revealed a major injury before his acting career began.

Speaking on the Louis Theroux podcast in January, the actor discussed a knock that he sustained while playing for the Maynooth senior football team in a Kildare quarter-final against Moorefield at the age of 21.

The identity of the player is not known, with Mescal not revealing the name, but the assailant had allegedly lined out for Moorefield in the Joe Mallon Senior Football Championship quarter-final in 2016.

Mescal described how he got "clobbered", breaking his jaw after a Moorefield player collided into him.

The Kildare actor, who previously played for both the Maynooth and Kildare county football teams, revealed that he did not realise the extent of the injury, playing on until the end of the match.

"I went out to reach for a ball out in front of me and got clobbered across this side and broke my jaw," Mescal told interviewer Louis Theroux.

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When asked by Theroux who had "done it", Mescal paused before replying that he could not remember.

When Theroux followed up, asking Mescal "what were you thinking when I just said that?", the actor replied that he had been thinking "about the person's name" before the two laughed.

"I was thinking, I'm in a bit of bother here, but I'm grateful for the team that I didn't get another slap on it, because then when I went to get X-ray, obviously it was broken and the doctor was like, if you'd got another slap on it would have shattered," Mescal added.

Mescal revealed that the injury was the moment he realised that "these two things that I love don't coexist, the world of sport and the world of acting".

Paul Mescal was later forced to pretend he had given up GAA while he learned to act, claiming his jaw was broken by a crazed mugger when it had been smashed during a tackle.

Two days after the match, he was due to start rehearsals on his final year play - with his jaw wired shut. "And I had to tell everyone in college that I had been working in Maxol and I had been mugged behind the till because I wouldn't tell them I was playing football. My deep dark secret was that I was playing football."

So, who broke Gladiator's jaw all those years ago, we wonder.

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