The International World Games is due to take place in Alabama in the summer of 2022, but Ireland's lacrosse team, despite having qualified, won't be there.

The Games, which aim to showcase and provide a pathway to the Olympics for sports who want to take the next step, were supposed to be held next year but the coronavirus pandemic pushed it back.

Ireland had secured a select invite to the men’s tournament, which is run as an abbreviated version of the full game, with six players per team instead of the usual 10.

Only eight teams, based on finishing places at the 2018 World Championships, were picked to take part and Ireland was among that number.

And we have all seen in recent years what gold runs can do for minority sports on the island, creating profiles and stars and careers.

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They are the soul of the sport, says Kennedy, and for a men’s lacrosse tournament, making its debut in the World Games, to go ahead without the Iroquois Nationals was not something they could allow.

International World Games organisers initially excluded them on the grounds that they were not a sovereign nation, without an Olympic Committee and therefore could not compete.

That upset the lacrosse community across the world and it prompted Kennedy and Ireland Lacrosse to make the ultimate sacrifice, moving aside once the association indicated that decision would be changed if a place could be found for the Iroquois.

"There's something special about lacrosse," Kennedy tells RTÉ Sport.

"It originated with Native American Indians, the Iroquois.