Football

Good and bad news for Tyrone duo Mattie and Richie Donnelly

A fractured bone in his back will keep Richie Donnelly sidelined for at least two months
A fractured bone in his back will keep Richie Donnelly sidelined for at least two months A fractured bone in his back will keep Richie Donnelly sidelined for at least two months

TYRONE Allstar Mattie Donnelly has been given the medical all-clear to face Cavan in the Allianz League Division One this weekend – but his brother Richie faces a two-month lay-off after suffering a fractured bone in his back.

Richie Donnelly has been blighted by injury since last summer. The Trillick man tore his Achilles in Tyrone’s Ulster semi-final draw with Cavan in June which ended his campaign with the county team.

The talented wing-forward hasn’t featured for Tyrone in 2017 and it looks as though he could be sidelined for the remainder of the Allianz League.

“It’s very unlucky for him because he’s a dedicated athlete,” said Tyrone boss Mickey Harte. “He puts in a lot of hard work and there’s nowhere he’d rather be than out on the field with the rest of the team.

“It sounds something like a stress fracture there which he probably didn’t recognise at first.

“But it’s transpired that is the case and it’s something he’ll have to tend to before he can get back out on the football field.”

There was, however, some good news coming from the Donnelly household as Mattie has recovered from concussion.

Mattie suffered the head injury in the opening minutes of Tyrone’s Division One win over Roscommon on February 5 and had to sit out the Dublin game at Croke Park six days later.

“I expect Mattie to be available,” confirmed Harte.

“He passed all the medical procedures within seven days but since our game [against Dublin] came short of the seven days we had to hold him back.

“He would have felt well enough to play but it wouldn’t have been prudent to ask him to play. So we observed the medical protocol to make sure he was over that and he is now and is available.”

The Tyrone medical staff had to take particular care with Mattie’s injury as he’d suffered concussion last year.

“Any history of it happening, I suppose, that increases the risk factor…

“Sometimes you have to take decisions out of the hands of the players and if they feel okay to play then they don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t play. But it’s the long-term risk of re-occurrence.

“His health is the most important and football comes a long way after it.”

Meanwhile, Harte paid a glowing tribute to St Mary’s College after they upset the odds to clinch the Sigerson Cup in Mayo last weekend.

St Mary’s weren’t expected to get beyond the semi-final stages never mind win the competition - but two tremendous comebacks against UCC and UCD in consecutive days saw them win the cup for the first time since 1989.

Tyrone had four representatives on the victorious St Mary’s team – Cathal McShane, Conor Meyler, Conall McCann and Kieran McGeary – and Harte heaped praise on their manager and former Tyrone trainer Paddy Tally.

“I’m delighted for them and for the ‘Ranch as well to pull it off, and for Paddy Tally and his backroom team,” said Harte, who studied there when the west Belfast college was known as St Joseph’s.

“It’s a major achievement because it isn’t easy with the numbers that they have. As Paddy said himself in interviews, they were very unfortunate on a number of occasions the last few years. They got pipped in the quarter-final by a point here and there when it could have gone their way.

“So they’ve shown great resilience to still be there and I’m really delighted as all ex-Ranchers are.”