McBrearty retirement 'unfortunate' - McGuinness
Donegal manager Jim McGuinness feels his former captain Patrick McBrearty (left) would have liked to return to the panel but injury forced his hand
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Donegal manager Jim McGuinness feels the retired Patrick McBrearty "would love to have given it another rattle" but the accumulation of injuries forced his hand.
The 32-year-old burst onto the inter-county scene as a teenager in 2011 and won an All-Ireland title with Donegal the following year.
A knee injury hampered the Kilcar man in recent years and in December, he announced he was to step away from the inter-county arena on medical advice.
McGuinness acknowledged the contribution made by the 2025 Donegal captain throughout his career but empathised with McBrearty's decision to step away.
"Paddy has been just immense for Donegal and we wish him well in his retirement," McGuinness said after Sunday's Dr McKenna Cup victory over Antrim.
"It's unfortunate, we communicated a lot in the off-season and we tried to do as much as we could to see if we could find a solution for him.
"It's just a medical decision and it's disappointing because I would say he would love to have given it another rattle but these things happen in football.
"We need to take a step back from that and think about what he did achieve and how young he was when in there for a number of games. It's going to take a toll at some stage and he probably is the most decorated player in the county, so he got a good innings, but he probably would have loved to have had one more go at it."
'I love the absence of pressure in pre-season'
Sunday's game was Donegal's first competitive outing since last summer's All-Ireland defeat to Kerry as last weekend's planned Dr McKenna Cup opener against Derry fell victim to the weather.
The sides will meet in Wednesday's semi-final at Celtic Park (19:30 GMT) in a repeat of the 2024 final which was won by the Oak Leaf County.
However, preparation for the league remains to priority as McGuinness looks to bolster his panel with 10 players making their senior inter-county bow during Sunday's win.
"All those fellas were positives for us and hopefully that will push us on towards Wednesday night, get another exposure and introduce more senior players and try to move from," McGuinness added.
"I love the off-season, and I love this time of year because it gives you a chance to look at things without the pressure of whether you've won or you're losing.
"Today was a perfect example of that. I've got a chance to look at a few different things we've been working on."
