 Brian McGuigan has been plagued by injury in the past year |
Tyrone's Brian McGuigan will miss all of this year's Ulster Championship as a result of his serious eye injury. The Ardboe man will undergo an operation on Friday as surgeons attempt to repair the internal eye damage that he sustained in a club game on Sunday.
"He's out for a minimum of two months and it could be longer," Tyrone boss Mickey Harte told the BBC on Tuesday.
In addition, Enda McGinley (shoulder) has joined Tyrone's injury-list ahead of Sunday's game against Fermanagh.
McGuigan was continuing his comeback from a broken leg and ankle problem in Ardboe's reserve contest with Aghyaran on Sunday.
He was taken to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry where he had eight stitches in the wound and was kept in overnight.
Even if his operation goes well on Friday, McGuigan will not be able to play football for many weeks as the injury will need a long period of protection before any contact sport can be attempted.
Some vision has now begun to return to McGuigan's eye but there is such a degree of internal damage that an operation is essential.
Mickey Harte had been hoping to have McGuigan on the bench in Sunday's Ulster quarter-final at Clones.
When asked whether McGuigan would be able to return to action, Harte replied:"I suppose it depends on how long we remain in the championship and how well his recovery comes up to speed.
"He's going to be in the best possible hands medically and hopefully, he's a good healer and hopefully he'll have the support of all those around him to help him get back to where we want to see him playing football as only he can."
The centre half-forward missed Tyrone's 2006 championship campaign after sustaining a broken leg in a club game last April.
McGuigan returned for Ardboe in February but then needed surgery on a troublesome ankle injury.
The Ardboe man will join Stephen O'Neill and Martin Penrose in definitely missing Sunday's game because of injury.
Errigal Ciaran forward McGinley, Owen Mulligan (hamstring) and Raymond Mulgrew (knee) are also rated extremely doubtful for the Fermanagh clash.
On the plus side, Brian Dooher and Ciaran Gourley look set to be part of the Tyrone panel after recovering from injury.
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He's going to be in the best possible hands medically