Gallagher blow for Donegal after suspected ankle break

DONEGAL defender Eoghan Bán Gallagher looks set to miss the rest of the season with a suspected broken ankle.

Gallagher sustained the injury at training on Wednesday night and initial tests in Letterkenny General Hospital have indicated that there was a break.

Donegal GAA have yet to confirm the injury as they await news of further tests the player was due to have in Dublin yesterday.

An injury of this nature, if confirmed, would take between 10 and 12 weeks to repair completely, ending his interest in the championship.

Gallagher is one of the quickest ball carriers in the game and is an integral part of the Donegal gameplan.

His incisive run to set up Jamie Brennan’s goal in Donegal’s Ulster semi-final win over Tyrone perfectly underlined his worth to them.

It’s the second successive year that Donegal have suffered a potentially season-ending injury to a key player, following on from Patrick McBrearty’s cruciate ligament tear in last year’s Ulster final.

Donegal will hope to have Paddy McGrath back for Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final phase two game against Kerry. McGrath was due to play against Meath last Sunday, but withdrew just before throw-in and was replaced by Stephen McMenamin. Donegal and Kerry last met in the 2014 All-Ireland final which Kerry won, thanks to an early Paul Geaney goal.

Geaney is one of four players who started that game and also started last Sunday’s win over Mayo. James O’Donoghue, David Moran and Paul Murphy were the other three, while Michael Murphy and Ryan McHugh were the only starting survivors from five years ago against Meath last Sunday, as McBrearty came off the bench back then.