By Niall Gartland

MATTIE Donnelly is set to miss the remainder of the season having sustained serious leg injuries while playing last weekend for his club Trillick at the Kilmacud 7’s tournament in Dublin

The Tyrone stalwart suffered a broken tibia as well as complete tear of his posterior cruciate ligament and will find out on Monday whether he will require surgery.

Donnelly faces into at least a six-month spell on the sidelines. If surgery is required, he will be out of commission for nine to 12 months.

The news comes to a significant blow to Trillick, whose senior championship campaign gets underway next month with a first round clash against Loughmacrory.

It also leaves the two-time All-Star with a race against time if he’s to play any part in the 2024 intercounty season.

Donnelly has already come through a number of serious injuries in recent years – he revealed back in March that he put off hamstring surgery to squeeze another couple of seasons out of intercounty football – but it looks more likely than not on this occasion that surgery will be necessitated, which would leave his Tyrone return in 2024 in jeopardy.