Tyrone have been dealt a major blow with the news that their captain and talisman Mattie Donnelly looks set to miss next year’s National League campaign.
The Trillick man sustained the injury in a recent Ulster club quarter-final clash with Derrygonnelly at Brewster Park, a game the St Macartans lost on penalties.
Donnelly will have surgery in a hospital in London today and faces up to six months on the sidelines.
“Unfortunately it’s a bad injury,” he confirmed.
“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.
“I have a few months of rehab ahead of me. 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.”
Donnelly’s loss will be a serious blow for Red Hands boss Mickey Harte ahead of an ultra- competitive division one campaign in 2020.
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