"I’d love to do five but I’d also like to be six-foot-five and have abs."

Garth Brooks has moved to play down the long-mooted prospect of five shows at Croke Park in 2022, saying that he doesn't think he will shift the same amount of tickets this time around. Speaking before an assembly of reporters at the venue in question on Monday morning, an often emotional Brooks insisted that he's happy to get any opportunity at all to finally play in Ireland again.

“It’s the greatest privilege and the greatest joy for an artist to play Ireland – and the greatest heartache to be told that you can’t," he noted.

Two concerts have been officially confirmed for Croke Park on 9 and 10 September, 2022. Tickets for those go on sale this Thursday (25 November) at 8am. They will be the only European gigs that Brooks will play next year. Asked about the expectation that he will, in fact, play five nights in total, Brooks played the humble showman, saying that he doesn't anticipate the "miracle" of shifting 400,000 tickets in 2014 will happen twice. https://twitter.com/Herdotie/status/1462749497260486656?s=20 "I’d love to do five but I’d also like to be six foot five and have abs," he joked. “What happened in 2014 was a fricking miracle – there’s no way we’re going to do that number again. I can’t see us doing five – would I love it to happen? Yes. But I think it’s impossible." His voice breaking at times, the country music superstar described the events of 2014 as like "a death in the family" but chose to focus on the positive. https://twitter.com/Herdotie/status/1462749866682114051?s=20   Asked if "all is forgiven" following the heartbreak of his previous attempt to play here, Brooks cut a humble figure.

"It’s not mine to forgive, I don’t hold anything [against] anybody – the fact is if you get to play Ireland, you’re a lucky sonofabitch – I don’t hold a grudge against anybody."