Football

Donnelly feeling stronger after fearing for career

Tyrone star Mattie Donnelly in action against Kerry's Tadhg Morley last year. Picture by Seamus Loughran
Tyrone star Mattie Donnelly in action against Kerry's Tadhg Morley last year. Picture by Seamus Loughran Tyrone star Mattie Donnelly in action against Kerry's Tadhg Morley last year. Picture by Seamus Loughran

MATTIE Donnelly admits he feared his body would struggle to cope with a return inter-county football – but that he feels better now than before he suffered a serious hamstring injury last winter.

The Tyrone stalwart suffered a hamstring avulsion, in which one of the tendons tore off the bone, during his club Trillick’s Ulster Club defeat by Derrygonnelly.

Six months on, he declared that he would have been fit to play against Donegal had the sides met in the Ulster SFC tomorrow as originally scheduled.

But the road to recovery looked bumpy early on when surgeons in both Ireland and France were recommending a non-surgical approach, which Donnelly feared would leave him trying to manage the hamstring for the rest of his career.

Through Tyrone physio Louis O’Connor, they eventually managed to secure surgery with Professor Fares Haddad, who has since operated on Tottenham and England striker Harry Kane’s similar injury.

And testing on the GPS system he bought himself to keep track of his recovery shows that Donnelly’s top speed has actually increased since his recovery.

“At the very outset, when you got the scan results back and reached out to different people that had it and had bad experiences, or physios and their response, it was a bleak outlook.

“Especially when you’re told you’re not going to get surgery and you see how people have struggled to get back with that approach.

“None of the physios could even say there was a chance I could come back to the levels I was at. No-one could give you that guarantee, so there definitely was that outlook on it, that you’d be in a minority if you were to come back and perform at a higher level, or even the same level.

“Definitely when you’re waiting to see if you’ll get surgery, there are those thoughts going through your head – ‘what if I can’t reach those levels again? What if I keep having recurring hamstring problems?’ things like that.

“I was moreso concerned at county level, it just wouldn’t have been optimal. I wouldn’t have been able to survive. To compete at county level, like anyone, you do need to be moving optimally at least, and I’m definitely on that boat.

“Those thoughts went through my head but Jonny [Davis] and Louis were brilliant.

“My head was going all over the place when I got on to Jonny initially but he said ‘no sweat, I’ve brought four or five boys back from this’, Tommy Bowe, Iain Henderson, he sent me their plans and what they did.

“Once you hear that, your mindset changes and you think I can do this, no problem. It turned from being daunting to being a challenge, and since that switch in mindset came, I’ve enjoyed getting back to it.

“I was looking forward to just testing the work I’d done in games, but I’ll have to wait a bit longer for that.”

Donnelly said he wouldn’t allow himself to get too down about not having a trip to Ballybofey to look forward to this weekend, but praised the GAA’s sensible approach to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic so far.

“I thought [John Horan] was right in what he said and no-one can argue with it. If the GAA resuming endangered one life, or cost one life, then it’s not worth it.

“As it stands, you couldn’t expect any more. You can’t completely write the year off, but at the same time you can’t have any certainty that it’s going to go ahead.

“Number one, no man can predict with any certainty what will happen, or what way it’ll be sitting in three weeks never mind five months. It’s just wrong to pressurise anyone to give you those answers. I’m happy to play the waiting game and hope for the best.

“My outlook is if there’s no football for a year or two or three years, I’ll still be putting my hand up to play for Tyrone and Trillick the other side of it. Five months is a long time away and things can change very quickly. Hopefully it changes for the better.”