WHILE THE REST of his Tyrone team-mates were mourning their heavy defeat to Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final last August, Tiernan McCann also had a serious injury to deal with which forced him to miss work for a lengthy spell.
McCann broke the fourth metacarpal in his left hand during the first quarter of their championship exit, but somehow managed to power through and complete the full 70 minutes.
“I remember looking down about 15 minutes into the game and the hand was like an elephant hand, it was all swollen up and I knew something wasn’t right,” he explains.
“But I don’t remember a collision or a block or tackle that did it. It wasn’t until half-time then that I got chatting to the doctor, and he was like, ‘That’s definitely broken.’ So it was even worse to learn that I’d broken my hand in the process.
“I said to Michael [Harte] the physio, and to the doctor, ‘Don’t be taking me off.’ Maybe I should’ve in hindsight, knowing what was coming after it, but I just wanted to play. I wanted to strap it up at half-time but it ended up being too much then.
“I wouldn’t have had any grip on the ball or I wouldn’t have been able to catch the ball. I just played away.”
Enduring the 12-point defeat to Jim Gavin’s side in front of a packed Croke Park was a painful enough experience even before a throbbing, swollen hand was thrown into the mix.
To compound matters, the injury meant the flying Red Hand wing-back couldn’t work for seven weeks after the game. McCann is Locum pharmacist and operates on a freelance basis around Dublin.
“I was seven weeks out of work because of it. That was the double impact. No real complications, it’s rather unsightly, but I wouldn’t worry about that.”
Living in Santry, he underwent surgery in the nearby Santry Sports Clinic to have three screws inserted into his hand, ruling him out for Killyclogher’s ultimately unsuccessful defence of the Tyrone SFC.
With his football over for 2017 and no work to occupy his mind, the 26-year-old says he spent his days “watching a lot of Netflix and stuff, and I was probably overthinking the whole thing, as I do.”
He continues: “I couldn’t play for Killyclogher and we were trying to retain the O’Neill Cup, so that was disappointing. Once I got into a few [Netflix] series, I can’t remember now, I was based between Dublin and home and I was doing rehab on it.”
Despite the heavy defeat Tyrone shipped to the All-Ireland champions, McCann believes they can be beaten.
“I don’t think anybody’s unbeatable. Last week, a lot of people on Sky Sports News were saying Man City were unbeatable. I’m a Liverpool fan and I was thinking, ‘When Liverpool get them at Anfield it’ll really test them.’ I don’t think any team is unbeatable.
“Mayo have been so close and maybe just a couple of wee things have led them astray, but ultimately, Dublin are there until someone goes and beats them.
“It’s my sixth year in the Tyrone team and there’s been a lot of new young lads coming in.
“We’ve a lot of lads in the group that maybe nobody outside of Tyrone has heard of yet that we’re hoping will step up. Paudie Hampsey was a really good example of that last year.
“Not many people would have known about him, he ended up marking Michael Murphy and winning man of the match in Ulster, kicking two points and going on to win an All-Star nomination. I know we’ve players that have that potential in the group and I’d be hoping they really sieze the opportunity and step up.”
Stephen O’Neill has been brought in by Mickey Harte as forwards coach, while Connor McAliskey’s return after a cruciate injury should also bolster the Red Hand’s attacking options.
McCann played alongside O’Neill for the final two years of his career and is impressed with his coaching acumen so far.
“He’s a fantastic role model for everybody. He was a really tough trainer, he was fantastic in games and combat. He always gave everything and was a good motivator within the squad too and was obviously Player of the Year in 2005.
“He’s been there and done it, won three All-Irelands. We should learn a lot from him and I know he’ll be of particular help to the lads inside having played in that position.
“We’ve done quite a number of drills with Stevie so far and all the stuff has been really, really good. He’s very hands on. His drills and training has been very good. Very innovative stuff in terms of movement and kickpassing.
“Connor’s a brilliant lad. He’s a very good football player. He’ll be a massive, massive bonus for us this year. We obviously missed him last year and it’s not easy. Sometimes people think you can just come back from these serious injuries and be the player he was.
“You have to be patient with him and it will take a while to get back to the levels he was at, because he was on a national stage a couple of years ago as one of the best forwards in Ireland. We’ve a number of them in there and hopefully they can step up now Sean [Cavanagh]‘s left and there’s a void there to fill. Hoping those lads will put their hands up.”
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