Fit O’Neill huge Tyrone boost

Stephen O’Neill has declared himself fit and ready to face Down and end an eight-month injury nightmare.

It’s unlikely the former Footballer of the Year will start Tyrone’s Ulster Championship opener on Sunday fortnight, but he desperately wants to see action at some stage.

The three-time All-Ireland winner has not played for the Red Hands since last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Mayo, and only made his comeback for his club last weekend. Successful surgery for Achilles Tendinopathy was followed by a painstaking rehab process, but last Sunday, the 33-year-old resumed his playing career, coming off the bench to help Clann nan Gael to a Division Three League win over Aghaloo.

“It has been a frustrating time, but it’s good to get to this far. It was good to get the run-out, and I enjoyed it. I felt grand after it,” he said.

Asked about his prospects of being handed a place in the starting side for the May 18 preliminary round clash with the Mourne men, O’Neill’s response was blunt and unequivocal: “Non-existent! There’s a good few boys in front of me, so I’ll just be pushing hard in training and hopefully get a spot on the bench. You would only be making an appearance if you earn that right in training an in the (in-house) matches.

“There are no guarantees on anything, but I’ll be trying my best, and if everything goes well in training, I might get pushed up near the front of the line. But I’ll just play it by ear.”

Having sat out the entire League campaign and missed several months of training, last season’s captain is off the pace in terms of fitness, and match sharpness.

But he feels that even a cameo appearance in next month’s all-ticket clash at Healy Park would provide him with a solid platform to grow into the season.

“I’m playing catch-up, but that was always going to be the case, so I’ll put the head down, hopefully train well over the next few weeks, and see how we get on.”

Surgery on a long-standing Achilles problem in February signalled the end of a winter of frustration and the onset of fresh hope that Tyrone fans would once again see one of the county’s greatest attackers in action. I had a bit of muscle removed and a bit of scar tissue around the Achilles tendon removed as well. It went well, and the surgeon Alistair Wilson was very good as well, and our own physios were great and got me sorted out.”