INJURED midfielder Darren Hughes has ruled himself out of this year’s Ulster Championship after sustaining a broken ankle in a club match last weekend – but hasn’t written off his summer.
The 32-year-old has yet to receive an MRI scan due to the swelling around his ankle but is expects to receive a diagnosis before the end of this week.
He suffered the injury in the early exchanges of last weekend’s senior league game against Ballybay.
“I don’t remember too much about it,” Hughes said. “I just remember hearing a crack.”
Hughes’s absence will be keenly felt by the Farney men as they prepare for their provincial opener against Cavan on Saturday May 18 at Kingspan Breffni Park.
“I’ll miss the Ulster Championship but hopefully the boys do the business and I’ll still have some football to play this summer,” said Hughes.
“A broken ankle is going to be two-plus months. That’s the best-case scenario. So I’ll not be writing the year off.”
The condensed Ulster Championship format is played over a six-week period (May 12 to June 23), whereas Hughes would have had more chance of playing in the provincial series under the old 10-week timeframe.
The Scotstown clubman, who burst onto the inter-county scene in 2006, played midfield in each of Monaghan’s Division One games this year and while he leaves a gaping hole to fill for the Cavan tie he feels the squad is strong enough to absorb his absence.
The experienced Neil McAdam would appear to be a ready-made replacement for the injured Hughes as the Monaghan Harps man is adept at playing the deep-lying midfield role, while Niall
Kearns is being nursed back to full fitness after undergoing heart surgery at the end of last year.
A farmer by trade, Hughes said is doing more “project-managing” although his father is helping out with his son off his feet.
“It doesn’t annoy me too much,” he added. “It is what it is. Whatever news I get I’ll be leaving no stone unturned to get back within the recommended time-frame. It’s up to the other boys to keep the ship sailing, I suppose.
“We’ve a good competitive squad there. I played every League game with somebody else so we’ve plenty of boys capable of playing around the middle. It’s not as if it’s happened a week before the Championship. Management have plenty of time to come up with something.”
A 10-week absence would take Hughes up to a week before the Ulster final.
“When I hobble about it’s painful but when it’s up it’s grand. But I can’t do much now. I’ve a specialist to see but I’d imagine it will be an eight to 10-week job anyway. But in saying that I haven’t been talking to anybody about it since Sunday because of the swelling. The professionals will get a look at me and they’ll scan it.”
Hughes underwent hip surgery in 2013 and a knee ligament injury sidelined him for a few weeks in 2017.
“I missed the preliminary round game against Fermanagh two years ago with a knee ligament injury but was back to play against Cavan in the semi-finals. That was probably the biggest injury I’ve had,” he explained.
“I got my hip operated on in 2013 but was back playing around St Patrick’s Day. This is a broken bone and a broken bone will heal.”
