Healy, Colin

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Fullname: Colin Healy
Born: 14 Mar 1980
Birthplace: Ballincollig, County Cork, Republic of Ireland
Signed: 1 Aug 1998
Left: 14 Aug 2003
Position: Midfielder
Debut: Celtic 0-3 Rangers, League, 2 May 1999
Internationals: Ireland
International Caps 13
International Goals 1

Biog

A promising midfielder, Colin Healy made his way up through the ranks at Celtic having been spotted by ex-Celt Mick Conroy.

A busy box-to-box performer, he made his Celtic debut under Dr Jo Venglos, playing three games. Incredibly, his debut was in a 3-0 defeat to Rangers at home on 2 May 1999 in the league when he was subbed on in the game. Not an easy or confidence inspiring day to be subbed on into (the side were already 2-0 down by the time he came on at the 69 minute mark). Still, Venglos gave him a run in the next matches which Celtic won, showing confidence in the player.

He was to be relegated to the reserves under new manager John Barnes, and maybe in retrospect he was thankful to miss the full fury and shambles that was to be Barnes reign.

Following Barnes’ departure, Kenny Dalglish brought Healy back into the first team. It was during this short run in the first team that Healy scored his only league goal for the club – against Rab Douglas who would become a team-mate of Healy’s when Martin O’Neill took charge, in summer 2000.

Now onto his third First Team manager at Celtic, Martin O’Neill appeared to take more of a shine to Healy, and the Cork man picked up a League Cup winner’s medal, notably having scored a goal in the 5-2 victory v Hearts on the way to the final.

He was a regular and had a good start in the first half of season 2000/01 playing many of the matches as the club was experiencing a bit of resurrection, but he was only afterwards given sporadic games in the second half of the season.

He never really managed to force his way into the first team for a permanent place, but was given sufficient number of games to prove his worth. With the quality at Celtic during MoN’s time, it wasn’t going to be easy but MoN didn’t help with bleeding youngsters preferring to spend on established stars instead. Celtic were trying to reboot after the disastrous spells in the last season, so the management was a bit myopic in its outlook.

Still, Colin Healy was liked enough and managed a number of games in the glorious treble winning season of 2000/01 (although never played in a Scottish Cup match that season so missed out on a medal there).

It wasn’t to be for Colin Healy at Celtic, but we wished him the best.

After Celtic

Healy moved on to Sunderland, to play for his old Ireland manager Mick McCarthy – the man who had attempted to call him up to the Irish World Cup squad in 2002 following Roy Keane‘s infamous departure. Healy was, however, called up after the deadline for squad replacements and couldn’t take part in Ireland’s campaign.

His time at Sunderland also saw the beginning of a cruel series of injuries, the first of which was as a broken leg as a result of an horrific challenge by Youssouf Safri in December, 2003. Having recovered from that injury, Healy broke down in training as a result of another broken leg.

Healy managed to recover from his injury hell and joined Livingston, having gone back home to Cork to consider his future in football. Little more than a year later, he returned home to play for Cork City.

Healy was controversially banned from playing for Cork until July 2007 by FIFA under their 3-club rule. Cork City appealed, citing the example of Javier Mascherano, who had been available for selection for Liverpool despite having been registered at three different clubs between July and June. FIFA had adjudicated that, as Corinthians played in January-December league, that he was exempt from that law but bizarrely decided that Healy was not, despite the EirCom League also running from January to December.

Healy became a key member of the Cork side and in July 2009 was linked with a £100,000 move back to England with Hartlepool United. However, Ipswich, now managed by Roy Keane, made a late move for the player and Colin completed a surprise switch to Portman Road on July 23rd. Then in January 2010 he was loaned out to Falkirk for the rest of that season. He scored his first Ipswich goal against Doncaster Rovers in February 2011.

Healy re-signed for Cork City on 28 January 2012, two and a half years after leaving there and his playing career was winding down from there. He returned to Cork City, and finally helped them winning a trophy in March 2016 in the Presidents Cup and the 2016 FAI Cup final where he came off the bench and put in a sturdy performance. He retired around 2016/17, and has gone on to be considered by Cork City fans as possibly one of the greatest players they have had playing for them.

He remarked on his time that:

“Representing Ireland at senior international level and making my debut for Glasgow Celtic are honours that I will cherish for ever”.

We wish him the best.

Playing Career

CLUB	FROM	TO	FEE	LEAGUE		SCOTTISH/FA CUP		LGE CUP		OTHER
				APPS	GLS	APPS	GLS	APPS	GLS	APPS	GLS
Falkirk	12-Jan-10	01-Jun-10	Loan	17 (2)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Ipswich	24-Jul-09		Signed	10 (9)	2	1 (0)	0	7 (1)	0	0 (0)	0
Cork City	01-Jul-07	24-Jul-09	Free	No appearance data available
Bradford	01-Nov-06	06-Dec-06	Loan	2 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Barnsley	10-Aug-06	01-May-07	Free	0 (8)	0	0 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Livingston	09-Mar-06	10-Aug-06	Signed	6 (3)	2	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Sunderland	14-Aug-03	31-May-05	Free	16 (4)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Coventry	29-Jan-02	22-Apr-02	Loan	17 (0)	2	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Celtic	01-Aug-98	14-Aug-03	Signed	16 (14)	1	3 (1)	0	5 (1)	2	3 (5)	0

Honours with Celtic

Scottish League

• 2000-01

Scottish League Cup

• 2001

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