By Niall Gartland
DEVENISH boss Sylvester Mulrone says his son Barry’s footballing career may be over after he sustained an ACL injury in their second-round league match against Tempo.
The former Fermanagh footballer previously recovered from the dreaded cruciate injury, but he’s now 33 years old and the fear is that he won’t be back in club colours.
Sylvester said: “He didn’t think that he’d done his ACL at the time as he felt grand compared to the last time it happened him. But he got the scan and it flagged up that he’s torn it again.
“That could be him retired unfortunately, especially as he’s put a lot of effort into intercounty football down the years. It’d be a big blow to us as he’s a great help to the club.”
The Garrison-based club have won one of their three league matches to date – a victory over Tempo sandwiched between defeats to reigning senior champions Ederney and Peter McGinnity’s Roslea. Mulrone says their main target is attaining survival in Division One, while they’ll also be hoping to do well in the Intermediate Championship later in the year.
“We’ve played three games, we won one and lost two. They’ve been close contests, Ederney beat us in the first game away, we beat Tempo at home and then lost to Roslea at home.
“Having good competitive matches against the likes of Ederney should hopefully stand to us going forward.
“We’d like to stay in Division One, that’s where you learn the most. With such a short league programme, only nine matches, every game’s very important. They pushed initially for an 18-round league but we’re happy enough as they’d be pushing a lot of football into a short timeframe otherwise.”
Mulrone is also hopeful about the future as they have a number of talented players coming through the ranks with experience of playing with Fermanagh at underage level.
“We have a few young boys in who played on the u-20 team, Finbar O’Brien and Mattie Flanagan. They’ve been a massive help and we’ve had a few other young boys coming in as well.
“It’s a big step from underage football to senior football no matter what county you’re playing in but so far things are looking good, they’ve freshened things up around the place as well.”
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