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Jack Grealish has donated towards former Villan Lewis Kinsella’s GoFundMe as he looks to help his club pay for his surgery and rehabilitation.
Words: Andrew Maddox | @MaddoxJourno
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Jack Grealish has shown yet again why he sits so fondly in the hearts of so many Aston Villa fans.
On Saturday, former Villa youth prospect Lewis Kinsella ruptured his Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) for the second time in his career. It came immediately after returning from the same injury that he suffered earlier in the year whilst playing for current club Aldershot. As this is a recurring injury with Kinsella, he needs surgery which Aldershot simply cannot afford. He was forced into making a GoFundMe campaign to raise the funds, which was found by Grealish soon after.
The current Villa captain came through the ranks at Bodymoor Heath with Kinsella and is therefore very close to the midfielder. Seeing his friend in need, Grealish donated £2,000 towards his friend’s operation and rehab. This would be commendable in normal circumstances, but Grealish’s nature truly shone through in how he published the action. In short, he didn’t publicise it.
Grealish retweeted Kinsella’s appeal to his 335,000 followers, but he never mentioned the donation in the tweet. This shows that the public perception of not just Grealish, but Premier League footballers as a whole is completely wrong. It is often assumed that top level footballers just like to flash their cash and only care about how many zeros are on their paycheque. However, Grealish has shown that it simply isn’t the case.
Earlier in the year, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Premier League players to “play their part” to look after the NHS and those around them. Well, they are. Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end child food poverty, Danny Rose’s actions to support his local hospital and now Grealish’s donation to support his friend shows that Premier League players aren’t the money hungry, heartless monsters some would like to believe. They are just as human as any of us.
It also reflects very well on the nature of Villa players as a squad. Tyrone Mings has worked endlessly to fight against racial discrimination as well as working to feed the homeless following his own experience with homelessness, earning him a place in the Forbes Top 30 People Under 30 list in 2019. Similarly, Ezri Konsa pledged to replace any fans shirts with 15 on the back after his change to number 4 for this season and the club opened Villa Park to the NHS as a makeshift maternity ward during lockdown. Grealish is by no means unique in his charitable acts in the squad which is wonderful to see.
Villa’s human nature and protecting their fans and community is a credit to the sport and to the club, though we are far from unique in this regard.
You can donate to Lewis’ GoFundMe below:
