McBrearty has no regrets about Donegal retirement

By John Harrington

Patrick McBrearty has no doubt that the decision to call time on his Donegal career at the end of last season was the right one.

The body keeps count, and a fourth surgery on his left knee late last year meant a 16^th season representing his county was always going be a physical stretch.

The door was open for him to return to Jim McGuinness’ panel if the rehab went well, but it was time to put his long-term health first rather than his body through the wringer again.

He admits it feels “weird” to be now watching his former team-mates from a distance as an analyst with GAA+, but he knows too he made the right call.

“It was my fourth surgery on the left knee,” explained McBrearty at the launch of the GAA+ 2026 Season Pass.

“I partially tore my cruciate back in 2015 and completely ruptured the cruciate badly in 2018. Came back, got a few years out of it.

“At the end of 2024 I had to go in and get cartilage repair, meniscus repair. Halfway through the season last year, just wear and tear basically and I didn't want to know the nature of the injury until after. Got a scan, bit of damage.

“Got the meniscus cleaned again, got the cartilage cleaned again. The surgeon then came out and said, ‘listen, there's extensive damage there. You need to have a few thoughts about the future. What do you want life to look like at 40’

“That's what his exact words were. What would you like your Tuesdays and Thursdays to look like?

“I said I would like, if I was fit, to be able to play a bit of astroturf. He said, well, these are the things you need to consider. I took his word on board, got a second opinion, and the same kind of diagnosis.

“I knew my own body would be feeling it. I don't think I would have contributed a lot this year, to be honest, by the time I got back and was up to the pace of it.”

Still, it must have been a difficult decision to make knowing that this Donegal team would be one of the leading contenders for the Sam Maguire Cup again this year?

“No doubt, and that was going through my head, but I wouldn't want to be one of these boys that's just holding on for that,” says McBrearty.

“If I wasn't playing and I was injured, I would definitely be….not a negative in the group, but I wouldn't be happy being there.

“I think everyone needs to be there for the right reasons. Me as a player, I've been used to playing for 15 years. If an injury was holding me back, having to go to training every day, knowing I was out for the season, things would have been different.”

He might be retired now, but if Donegal do win Sunday’s Allianz Football League Final against Kerry and follow it up with the Sam Maguire Cup in July, then McBrearty will deserve a share of credit.

Donegal wouldn’t be the silverware contenders they are now had Jim McGuinness not returned as manager for the 2024 season, and it’s highly unlikely that would have happened without McBrearty.

Donegal captain for what was a very difficult 2023 season that saw Paddy Carr step down as manager after a meeting with his players, McBrearty made it his mission to persuade McGuinness to return as soon as Donegal’s championship campaign ended that year.

“I remember it was the day after Tyrone beat us,” says McBrearty. “I went down the following morning.

“I met four or five of the players after the game. Myself, Hughie, Eoghan Bán, Oisin Gallen and Stephen McMenamin ended up going down. The original plan was for the whole lot of us to doorstep him.

“We were all down there but I said, ‘right boys, I'll go on my own.’ If he says, ‘you know, take the rest of the boys down.’ but he said ‘no, me and you will have a chat.’

“We did a good chat for maybe two and a half hours in the house, just me and him talking about where's this individual and what's going on here. Where do you see yourself? He was asking me a lot of questions about myself. Really, really honest conversations.

“I knew I wasn't going to get a yes or no then, he said he’d think about it. We made contact with him again maybe another week later as a squad, requesting his services back.

“It was a letter signed by everybody. It was the thing to show that we really, really wanted it back. There were numerous phone calls, there were players away foreign working. How do we get them boys back? He had never said yes or no at this stage, and that was the real positive for me - the fact he never said no always kept it going.

“There were days I thought ‘this man isn't coming back.’ But the fact he never said no just made me keep pushing him. I just got a phone call one day from a third party, a really, really close friend of Jim's. He said he was going to take the job again. He'd be touch in the next few days and he'd be in touch with the County Board, and that's how it happened really.”

McBrearty knew that things would improve very quickly with McGuinness back at the helm, but he still describes it as a “pinch me moment” when Donegal won the 2024 Ulster Senior Football Final.

From that moment on the goal was to win the Sam Maguire Cup, but Donegal were edged out by Galway in a 2024 All-Ireland semi-final they could have won and then beaten by Kerry in last year’s All-Ireland Final.

They lost that match by 10 points in the end, but McBrearty still can’t help but wonder what might have been had he taken a scoring chance that came his way shortly after his introduction as a substitute.

“Was there three points in it, with 10, 12 minutes to go? We didn't get a lot wrong on the day. Obviously, I would say there's a few things that would be changed, but we lost the game by 10 points but there was 10 minutes to go when we were three points down. I remember I missed a shot into the Canal end.

“Sometimes…I thought about it a lot since, it was a shot that I should have nailed. It would have taken it back to two just after I came on, it would have been a big momentum swinger. So things like that, small margins, you have to take them chances in the big games.

“So yeah, obviously when you lose, there's things you would change, no doubt about it. Kerry didn't get everything right on the day, but when you win, that's kind of masked over. But, you know, definitely, Donegal definitely took learnings from it.

“The first 15 minutes were probably the winning and losing the game from a Donegal point of view, so it's hard to claw back when you give a team like Kerry a lead like that.

“So, you know, unfortunate, lost to a really, really good team. We had a really good year, but I suppose there was a lot of hurt there and a lot of the team there, they would have carried that through the winter. So, it'll be interesting to see how they get on out here on Sunday.

“I'd say Donegal will want to lay down a marker.”