Donegal facing an impossible challenge

DISGUSTED. That is the only word to describe how I felt on Tuesday when the news broke that Paddy McBrearty had been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a cruciate knee injury.

It is a tragic blow to the player and a potentially fatal one to his team but it is also a loss which every true genuine Gaelic football fan will see.

The Kilcar man is one of a handful of players in the game that you would happily pay hard cash at the gate to just go and watch. He really is that good. He is strong, twofooted and this season I think he had brought a vision to his game that perhaps was not always there.

It seems that he is been around for an age – this is his eighth season – but he is only 24 and his form for club and county this season suggests he is only hitting his peak.

His loss to Donegal will be profound. They have been the surprise packet this summer and on current form I would have them as the third ranked team and one with a genuine shot at going all the way.

Without McBrearty, that becomes a hard, nigh on impossible challenge.

It has been done before. In my time we won AllIrelands after losing Seamus Moynihan, Darragh and, in 2014, Colm Cooper to injuries but we had the depth to cope.

I believe that Donegal are getting there, but the bottom line is that they have lost the one player who they can’t replace.

And there will be a price paid for that.