Candles, prayers and £100 worth of ice help McNamee play through pain

TYRONE full-back Ronan McNamee admitted he had still not recovered from the leg injury he defied to play in yesterday’s stunning win over Donegal.

McNamee, who was expected to miss yesterday’s game after sustaining a calf injury in the defeat by Dublin, not only played the full game but got up the pitch to kick the penultimate score.

However, the defender admitted that he had to fight through the pain barrier to make the selection cut.

‘I couldn’t really walk properly for about eight days,’ revealed McNameee. ‘I was off work for four days, so it wasn’t great to be brutally honest.

‘This here seemed miles away but I have a Game Ready (cold therapy) machine at the house, I must have spent about £100 on ice this week.

‘It’s still not one hundred per cent, definitely not, but it got me through today,’ added McNamee, who was unable to train in the build-up for yesterday’s game.

‘I was out with Michael (Harte) and the physios on Tuesday and I could run.

‘When I stopped running it was brutal, it was like sticking a knife in it.

‘We had training on Saturday morning and I couldn’t walk, but I went from limping to running on it inside three days.

‘I was hopeful on Tuesday night and I was doing everything I could between elevating it and icing it.

‘Anything I could. Mammy was lighting candles left, right and centre in every chapel she went past and she’s a Donegal woman,’ joked the Tyrone star.

But yesterday was no laughing matter for Donegal manager Declan Bonner, who was left deflated after Donegal’s third Championship defeat on the bounce to their Ulster rivals.

‘We had too many balls turned over in that second half especially — eight or nine balls turned over — and you can’t do that against a quality side like Tyrone who will hit you on the counter attack and that’s exactly what happened,’ said Bonner, as he reflected on his team conceding a four-point lead in the final quarter.

Bonner accepted that Tyrone’s 61st-minute goal from substitute Harry Loughran was the tipping moment in a contest in which his team had looked the more likely winners for long periods.

Yesterday’s defeat takes the shine of what had been a sparkling summer for Bonner in his second stint as county boss, with the highpoint a ninth Ulster title win back in June.

‘We are disappointed, it is a very disappointed dressing room in there.

‘There are a lot of young players in there. I’m sure they will learn a lot from it.

‘We will sit back and analyse the situation but from our point of view it has been a very good season but we are just disappointed.

‘This game was winnable, we had no fear going into this game, if we played to the level we knew we were capable of doing, and avoided those mistakes in terms of getting turned over we had a big chance, and ultimately that’s what let us down.’