DERRY star Chrissy McKaigue says that he is weeks away from returning to full training.

At the end of 2019, McKaigue tore a hamstring muscle. He worked on that injury during last season. But then he was hit with a torn meniscus in his knee.

It meant that he had to go under the knife in the winter past. Surgery is something he is very unfamiliar with as the only other time he’s had it was when he had his tonsils removed when he was a child. He said that recent years issues with hamstring and knee problems are something he kept to himself.

“I’ve not really talked about it but for the past few years I’ve struggled with injuries. I had been playing with them. People on the outside don’t know the ins and outs of them. There is stuff in a lot of peoples lives that has happened that we don’t know about.

“For part of last year I was relatively injury free and that coincided with a good year. Touch wood I can stay relatively injury free now. It’s one thing being able to play with injuries, but it is not fun.

“You want to go out and you want to show the best of yourself.

“It is only after you see the scans that you understand the severity of these things.”

The knee injury was picked up during the early part of the season. However, he hit the wall against Armagh in the Ulster Championship. Since then he has had to make an effort to address that issue.

“I am a few weeks away from full training. I had the operation, and it has been positive so far. There were a couple of tears in my meniscus, it wasn’t major surgery but it was something that needed to be respected

“It feels grand with now. It has coincided with games being pushed back which is good. It is not all doom and gloom, but I would like to be back out doing my own training, and doing full training.

“Touch wood I am fine and I will be a bit shrewder with training going forward.”

He wasn’t sure if the hamstring led to the knee injury.

“I thought the hamstring was fully rehabilitated. It started off as a minor tear and I was able to get through it. I maybe denied to myself that it was hurting. But then the weeks of club championship took its toll. Maybe that wasn’t the smartest move. But I made my bed and lay in it, and there is no lasting damage done to the knee.”

Derry are preparing for the new season with players training on their own. McKaigue said he would prefer to get more time to prepare.

“I wish they’d push the games back further. It is very hard to prepare. Last year the preparations for the Armagh game were very disjointed. Yet the scrutiny is just the same, but the preparation is less than what you would be used to. But that’s the times we are in.

“I think if they are sensible with the time frame for us to prepare, that’s all we can ask for.”