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Mattie Donnelly Out for Up to a Year
Saturday 05.08.2023
Trillick and Tyrone GAA star Matthew Donnelly will have to content himself with that of a spectator role for this year’s Tyrone Senior Football club championship following confirmation today that he has sustained a serious injury picked up at last weekend’s Kilmacud 7’s tournament in Dublin.
The news will come as a blow to his club Trillick as they prepare for the opening round of the Connolly’s of Moy Tyrone Senior Football Championship against Loughmacrory in September.
Speaking exclusively to TTM on Saturday afternoon Mattie confirmed that he had sustained a couple of nasty injuries. “I’ve completely torn the the PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) in my knee and broken my tibia (shin bone).”
The injury comes just under four years after Donnelly returned from a career threatening leg injury picked up during the 2019 Ulster Club match against Derrygonnelly Harps. He was two national All Star Awards, three Ulster Senior Championship medals, an All Ireland with the county in 2021 and two senior championship medals with his club Trillick.
“It’s a tight blow for me to get at this stage in my career. Hopefully I won’t need an operation but I’ll know more next week when the consultant has had an opportunity to review things.” Any possible return to play in 2024 will be based on the outcome of that report.
Donnelly featured by Tyrone in all seven national league fixtures in 2023 and the five championship matches, scoring 0-5 and 0-9 in each competition.
“Without surgery recovery would take around six months. With surgery I’d be looking at nine months to a year.”
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