Pictured is Derry footballer Padraig McGrogan who has teamed up with Allianz Insurance to look ahead to his county’s All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Group stages campaign and what will be a busy summer of Gaelic football.
By John Harrington
Derry defender, Padraig McGrogan, has admitted he’ll miss the rest of the season after rupturing a cruciate ligament in his right knee.
The Newbridge clubman sustained the injury in training on the Thursday after Derry’s Ulster SFC quarter-final defeat to Donegal and hopes to undergo surgery next month.
A hugely consistent performer, his absence is a big blow to Derry’s All-Ireland ambitions.
“There's no hiding it now, it was done a couple of weeks ago and it just is what it is,” said McGrogan today.
“It was the ACL so I won't be taking part in much more now for this season.
“I just went to turn inside, and I just knew right away that I’d done something. It was just a freak accident. It can happen so easily. You never fear it, I felt 100pc the whole way through training and it just happened suddenly, it was just a freak thing.
“I knew right away it was fairly serious. There was a bit of a crunch, and the pain let me know there was something not right anyway.”
Derry went into their Ulster SFC quarter-final against Donegal on April 20 as warm favourites but suffered a defensive meltdown that saw them concede four goals.
Their tactical ploy of using goalkeeper Odhran Lynch as an extra body out the field when pushing up on Donegal’s kick-outs backfired badly, and McGrogan admits it’s something they’ve tweaked in training since as they prepare to play Galway in the first round of the All-Ireland SFC group phase on Saturday, May 18.
“Well, we'll have to adjust some way because if it's not working then you have to change it,” said McGrogan. “Clearly the kick-out tactic just didn't go well for us that day.
“We were probably just over-aggressive and nearly silly in the end. We've analysed it and we still have to press the kick-out, you can't go the opposite direction and just give it up, but we've watched it back and we're working on it and we will be working on it for a long time like most teams now.”