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Glen ace has been through the wars but he wants to put injury chat to bed

GIVE US A BREAK Glentoran bench look on dismay as Conor

Mcmenamin trudges off the pitch, again, in the Glen’s 2-1 defeat to Cliftonville on Sunday I have been playing well but I knew right away something wasn’t right, I couldn’t put any weight on my foot. I am hoping to get good news on it

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Tomorrow, 3pm

CONOR MCMENAMIN is looking forward to letting his football do the talking instead of injuries dominating the headlines.

The Glentoran winger will find out today the extent of the foot injury that forced him off in Sunday’s defeat to Cliftonville.

There was also the confusion – and circus – that followed the 27-year-old after he was stretchered off against Coleraine the week before.

Mcmenamin was originally diagnosed as having a ‘spiral fibula fracture’ but follow-up scans revealed no break. He then returned to start against Cliftonville before picking up another unrelated knock.

The Northern Ireland international is due to meet a specialist today to review an MRI scan on his foot, and he is crossing his fingers for some positive news.

“It is my foot. I have to see a specialist in the morning,” Mcmenamin said.

“I knew straight away something wasn’t right after the tackle. It didn’t feel right and I signalled to come off straight away.

“I tried to play on but I couldn’t put weight through it

Glentoran

and it’s still not great. Hopefully I get good news on Friday.”

He added: “Obviously I have been playing pretty well and I want to help the team, but on Sunday the foot just wasn’t right after the tackle.

“Hopefully I will be back sooner rather than later, but at the minute I just don’t know.

“I had an MRI during the week and I am due to see a specialist on Friday morning who is going to assess things.”

Reflecting on the saga that unfolded after he was initially diagnosed with a fracture, Mcmenamin voiced his frustration at the series of events.

He said: “It was a bit of handling. First it was broken, then it wasn’t broken.

“On the Friday night I was told my fibula was fractured and we would take things from there. I don’t know how the news got out. I was getting text messages asking was my leg hanging off and all that.

“I have to give the Northern Ireland doctor David White a lot of credit. He rang me and sent to the specialist for the MRI scan which came back all-clear.

“The Glentoran and Coleraine doctors were also brilliant with me. They were there with me the whole night in hospital.

“I am just glad it wasn’t broken and we got there in the end. But I think it was all out in public before I even knew the results.

“Hopefully I get some positive news and I can get back to playing football soon.”

Glentoran boss Mick Mcdermott has accused teams of targeting Mcmenamin this season and called for greater protection from referees for the winger.

Mcmenamin believes some of the challenges have warranted red cards, but doesn’t believe opponents are singling him out for special attention.

“I don’t think teams are targeting me or anything like that,” he said.

“I just think there have been a couple of tackles which should have been red but they weren’t.

“It is just about that consistency. It isn’t just with me, it is throughout the league. Refereeing is a tough job and I don’t like criticising them.

“You just look for consistency. There are decisions that can change games, and they can determine if you get a draw or win.

“And those results could be massive come the end of the year. These wee decisions turn out to be big factors in the course of the season.”