By Michael McMullan

DOWN manager Ronán Sheehan is full of praise for Tom McGrattan’s efforts in recovery and hopes to see him in action by the end of the league.

The Portaferry ace sustained an ACL injury in training last season and missed crunch games for club and county.

“He’ll hopefully feature in the final games of the National League,” Sheehan told Gaelic Life ahead of this weekend’s trip to Carlow as Down make a return to Division One.

“His recovery has been excellent, he’s in really good shape and we’ll just have to see how that plays out over the next six to eight weeks, but he certainly is on track for potentially playing a part before the end of the National League.”

Sheehan’s focus is on McGrattan’s long-term recovery, something he stressed when the process began after last year’s operation.

“I’ve rarely seen a young fellow work as hard to get back and to be in as good a shape,” Sheehan added.

“Any of the credit for that goes to Tom, and indeed to a lesser extent, Conán (Brogan), our physio, they’ve done a lot of hard work together. It seems to be paying off.

“We’ll just see how it goes as he gets back on the pitch and he starts to get reintroduced

“We’ll let him take his time and we’ll take that gently and hopefully he gets an opportunity before the end of the National League, but if he doesn’t, he’ll certainly feature in the McDonagh.”

Down play Carlow on Saturday before hosting Wexford in Ballycran as they make the return to top flight hurling after a story of progression continued with promotion last season.