GLENSWILLY utility player Ryan Hunter is staring down a long and lonely road that is all-too familiar.
Just before the start of Glenswilly’s RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta Senior Football Championship game against Sean MacCumhaills at Pairc Naomh Columba on Sunday, Hunter (picture above courtesy of Geraldine Diver) emerged from the dressing room with his right leg encased in heavy strapping.
He was bound for Letterkenny General Hospital, where a subsequent scan confirmed that he was living the worst of his nightmares.
Late in the Reserve Championship game, Hunter went to ground awkwardly and immediately he knew.
After all, he’d felt the similar, sharp, piercing pain twice before. He snapped the anterior cruciate in his right knee.
In October 2013, Hunter sustained his first cruciate injury when playing against Glenfin in the All-County League.
Surgery in Galway the following month had him back on track but, last spring while at work in Tesco, he snapped the cruciate in the opposite knee, just two months before he had planned to come back.
Now, just five months after he was back in the Glenswilly shirt in April, he’s been struck down again.
“I’m absolutely gutted for Ryan,” Glenswilly senior manager Michael Canning told Donegal Sport Hub.
“I did the cruciate myself a few years ago so I know what the recovery is like. It’s a horrible injury and poor Ryan was in tears before he left the changing room.
“Our hearts go out to him. He’s a great young lad to work with and he’s very dedicated – as he’s shown by bouncing back from two previous cruciate injuries.
Tags: