Tyrone midfielder Padraig McNulty has drawn a line in the said after enduring a 15-month injury nightmare.
He’s back playing with his club following a series of setbacks in his recovery from a broken arm.
The Dungannon Clarke’s clubman suffered the injury during an Allianz Football League clash with Donegal at Ballybofey in February 2022, and a problematic healing process required two operations and more than a year on the sidelines.
“I’ve had 15 months of it, with being out and going through two operations,” he said.
“But I’m just glad to be back kicking football, that’s what you want to be doing. And I’m looking forward to the season ahead.
“After the first operation, it didn’t knit in the middle, it knit on the outside.
“I went back to training and was training for about a month, but I knew that it wasn’t right.
“So I went and got a more in-depth scan, and it showed that it wasn’t healing in the middle.
“Then I missed the (club) Championship, and I had to go and get another operation for it, and then another six months out. It’s been a long journey.”
- Dungannon midfielder McNulty to miss Tyrone championshipDungannon midfielder McNulty to miss Tyrone championship
Now with seven League games under his belt with Dungannon, McNulty feels he is making progress in rediscovering his touch and regaining match fitness and sharpness.
“It’s been hard so far, just getting your touch, your fitness. It’s more about ball skills and stuff, but I feel that with each game in play, I’m getting there.
“We have another eight games in the League, so hopefully come the Championship, I’ll be at my peak then.”
He did return to the Tyrone squad in the latter part of this year’s inter-county campaign, but admits there was never any realistic prospect of him seeing game time in an ultra-competitive environment.
“I was just too far behind, I had missed too much.
“Those boys are training as elite athletes and it’s very hard to get up to that level in such a short period of time.”
And on his hopes of renewing his Tyrone career in 2024, he said: “We’ll see what happens. I’ll finish off this year and see where I’m at in the winter-time.
“But I’m just focused on Dungannon for now.”
Dungannon, who were county champions in 2020, have made a sluggish start to the Tyrone Division One League, winning just two of their seven games to date, and currently sit tenth in the table.
They lost narrowly to high-flying Carrickmore in a fiercely competitive tie at the weekend, and McNulty feels the Clarke’s are not far away.
“We had a rocky enough start, we won last week, but then we were beaten by Carrickmore.
“We’re just trying to build form, trying to get there, but we’re just not there yet.
“Carrickmore, they’re at the top of the table, and you can see why, because they were very impressive.”
As the League campaign reaches its midway point, clubs are beginning to step up their preparations for the Championship, which begins in September, and for Dungannon, it’s an enticing local derby clash with Eglish.
“It’s going to be a very tough game. Eglish have a lot of great young players, and they’re really pushing.
“In the Tyrone Championship, you take no-one for granted. You have to be at your best all the time, or you’ll be sitting watching the rest of it.”
