TYRONE have been dealt a major blow with the news their captain and talisman Mattie Donnelly looks set to miss next year’s National League campaign.
The Trillick clubman sustained the injury in a recent Ulster club quarter-final clash with Derrygonnelly at Brewster Park, a game St Macartan’s lost on penalties. Donnelly is to have surgery in a hospital in London today and faces up to six months on the sidelines.
“Unfortunately, it’s a bad injury,” said Donnelly.
“I got the results of the scan there last week and it has revealed that one of the tendons of the bone on the hamstring has become detached. The only way around it is surgical intervention but I’m in good hands with Tyrone with Louis O’Connor and now Johnny Davis on board, so I have the best of the best looking after me.”
“So I have a few months of rehab ahead of me,” he added.
“It’s the best of a bad bunch. There is never a good time to get injured, but this is probably the pick of the season when there is not much happening in the winter months.
“I will put the head down and be diligent with the rehab as I’m at that age now, with Tyrone panels you need to be coming back in good shape.”
It’s not the news Tyrone manager Mickey Harte would have been hoping for, especially with a competitive Division One ahead next season when a good start to the campaign is essential.
