Brian McGuigan may have suffered a football career-ending injury,according to his dad

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Got this from gaaboard.com

"My Brian May Never Play Again"

Tyrone Legend Frank McGuigan has revelaed his fears that son Brian may never play football again.

Brian was forced to lie still in his bed for almost a week after the latest in a series of operations aimed at repairing a detached retina and saving the sight in his left eye.

Luckless Red Hand star McGuigan watched last Sunday's Ulster semi-final win over Donegal from his bed. He sustained the injury in a club reserve game last month against Aghyaran, as he continued his comeback from a horrific broken leg.

Frank wrote an open letter to a local newspaper this week to clear up misinformation about his son's state. "My son went through an operation last Wednesday and had to lie on his side until Thursday, when he had a follow-up operation", wrote Frank. "He then returned home but has still had to lie on his side until Tuesday of this week at least. "Having spoken at some length with his consultant, my personal fear is that he may never play football again", contiuned the letter in the 'Tyrone Times'.

McGuigan went on to slam a story which stated that his son could return in time for the Ulster Final. "That puts into perspective the ridiculous story which appeared a couple of weeks ago in some newspapers, on teletext and websites, which suggested that Brian might return in time for the Ulster Final, should Tyrone make it there", he said. "The author did not get that information from anyone who has anything to do with Brian and we were far from happy at its appearance."

Frank has been critical of the Aghyaran club for their lack of interest in Brian since the injury occurred. It has never been revealed how the injury actually happened.

"Initially Brian was taken to Altnagelvin Hospital and, after some emergency treatment, he was home for a few days before going to the Royal Victoria, where they worked to try and put the retina back," the letter continued. "The Consultant explained that it was being held together by two wee bits at 12 o'clock and six o'clock positions. On Wednesday they inserted a 'bubble' to try and move everything back into its proper place - a very painful process as it was only under local anaesthetic".

Frank revealed that his son's primary concern is that his sight returns in his left eye. "As for the future, Brian hasn't mentioned playing football, which was all he talked about when it was his leg or ankle that was injured. Now he's only concerned about getting the sight back in his eye".

- Karl O'Kane, The Irish Star


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It's very worrying, rotten luck, i really hope it works out alright in the end for him, he's a great footballer.

Redsoxfan

Would be terrible news. A fine footballer. I shudder to think what the score would have been on Sunday had he been playing against Donegal......

Kojak

Whatever about him playing for Tyrone again, I hope hos eyesight returns to full. He will have at max 10 years of playing football(if he is able to return) but if he lost the sight in his left eye - he would probably have to live with that for the rest of his days.

If he cannot return for Tyrone, then it will be an enormous loss to them. he may not be the most rated player on the Tyrone team but he is the most influential. he links up midflield with the full-forward line and is able to spot the correct pass to give almost every time.

Returning to the team maybe a concern, but he should just focus on getting his sight back.

Redsoxfan

Agreed-I hope he recovers regardless of whether or not he ever plays football again.

A very disturbing thing is that the surgeon allegedly told his dad that this injury could only have been caused deliberately-this was revealed by a journo on Off The Ball last night, and repeated on the Newstalk Breakfast Show this morning.

cournioni

Kojak wrote:

Whatever about him playing for Tyrone again, I hope hos eyesight returns to full. He will have at max 10 years of playing football(if he is able to return) but if he lost the sight in his left eye - he would probably have to live with that for the rest of his days.

If he cannot return for Tyrone, then it will be an enormous loss to them. he may not be the most rated player on the Tyrone team but he is the most influential. he links up midflield with the full-forward line and is able to spot the correct pass to give almost every time.

Returning to the team maybe a concern, but he should just focus on getting his sight back.

I totally agree Kojak, there is more important things in life than football. No one should be expecting him to come back and play a game unless the doctors give him 100% thumbs up to play. Eyesight is something that is too big to lose.

McGuigan is a quality player, I remember reading about him before the Cavan game in 2005. I was wondering what all of the hype was about as I had never really seen him stand out much on the tv. Cavan had Tyrone in real bother, playing a blanket defence and breaking up the pitch and scoring points. McGuigan and Dooher (McGuigan just back from the US and Dooher from injury) came off the bench and immediately you could see why McGuigan was rated so highly in the article.

He added a great deal of stability and patience to Tyrone's play. Doing the right things and playing the right balls to the forwards. It ultimately saved them from a really embarrasing defeat at the hands of Cavan. They hammered us in the replay and McGuigan went on to win the All Ireland with he and O'Neill being the two star men.

He would be a great loss to Tyrone and the game. So here's hoping for his own and the games sake (not Tyrone's! ) that he makes a full recovery.

gucci

Totally agreeing with the above posters, the most important thing here is that he regains his sight. His quality of life for the rest of his life is more important than a few years playing football at the top level.
It disgusts me that this could be another one of the gaa hall of shame of injuries inflicted intentially by an opponent.

Incidentally a team mate of mine lost sight in an eye when he was 7 or 8 (not through playing football) he still plays now in his 20's, hes pretty good too but his vision is a serious handicapp to his over all game.