Many years ago when my parents heard I was loitering with a young man, they asked to meet him over Sunday lunch. Between playing for the local GAA and rugby clubs, he had a busy weekend schedule but I accepted on his behalf anyway. Sure what could be more important than an introductory lunch with the future in-laws? A grudge match against the neighbouring parish, as it happened. You don’t just let the team down, he said, slack-jawed at the idea. Lunch was deferred in a spirit of mutual bewilderment, to put it nicely.

That moment came to mind when news of Belgian football star Jérémy Doku’s World Cup dilemma emerged over the past week. The 24-year-old Manchester City winger had already cried off the Belgium v Iran game on Sunday due to a respiratory infection. Worse, the game was drawn despite Belgium being hot favourites.

But the real dilemma for Doku was the timing of the birth of his first child, expected in the second week of July – a period that would coincide with the World Cup knockout rounds. When he told reporters he “definitely” wanted to be at the birth, reaction was muted beyond a former Belgian international jokily suggesting that he would be a spare wheel at his child’s birth. Then one of his old youth coaches, Peter Janssens, weighed in saying it was a choice to go to the World Cup – “if you’re there it’s because you have chosen to play. The baby will still be there afterwards”. The headlines declared a generational clash over Doku’s dilemma.

At that point it might have remained a national diversion........

© The Irish Times