RYAN MCHUGH says Patrick McBrearty is ‘flying’ as his Kilcar team-mate gets ready to return to Donegal’s colours again.
McBrearty could feature for Donegal on Sunday-week in the Ulster SFC opener against Fermanagh at Brewster Park, 11 months after a cruciate injury against the same opposition in the 2018 Ulster final.
The forward has shown glimpses of the old magic during his outings for Kilcar in the All-County League.
“He’s trying to get that wee bit of match sharpness back for himself,” McHugh said.
“He’s played four matches for the club and he’s back flying.
“He does everything to the letter of the law… his rehab went extremely well. Hopefully he can get back to as good as he was for Donegal in the Championship.”
Last year, McBrearty was Donegal’s top scorer – having posted 0-34 in the League and 0-19 in the Championship – when he got struck by the injury in the early stages of the second half of the Ulster final win over Fermanagh.
McHugh said: “I think before he picked up the injury last year in the Ulster final he was, if not the best, then in the top three forwards in Ireland the way he was playing at the time.
“When you look back on the year last year, at the time you’re trying to say to yourself that it’s not that big of a deal and you try to stay on the positive side.
“But looking back on the year as a whole I think it was a huge turning point in Donegal’s year when Paddy picked up that injury.
“He was playing so well and probably leading the attack and leading it extremely well for us, kicking six, seven, eight points a game which is huge.”
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