Bradley injury concern for Derry

Derry may have to plan for their upcoming Championship campaign without mercurial forward Paddy Bradley.

It is feared that Bradley tore his cruciate knee ligament during an appearance for his club Glenullin against Bellaghy on Saturday night.

The former All-Star, who turns 30 next month, twisted his right knee during the league game and Derry selector Barry Dillon is hoping for positive scan results.

"Paddy just stopped suddenly, you could see his reaction when he hit the ground," he told the Irish News.

"It was innocuous, there was no challenge. It looks serious, but we won't know until he gets a scan.

"The dreaded word 'cruciate' has been mentioned. He was in real distress, he was beating the ground. It was not good to see."

If the worst is confirmed, Bradley would join a growing list of inter-county footballers with cruciate injuries, including Kildare midfielder Dermot Earley, Cork's Colm O'Neill and Kerryman David Moran.

Commenting on the issue recently, Earley's Kildare team-mate John Doyle put forward a possible link between sand-based pitches and the rise in cruciate injuries.

"There's a lot of talk about blades (on boots) and stuff like that. I heard someone talking about sand-based pitches," he said.

"It is not like years ago when you stopped and a pile of earth came with you. Now the ground is nearly firm all year around. It is hard to know, we have been very unfortunate with them.

"Mikey Conway hasn't played since 2009. Some people come back reasonably well from it but others, they get it harder. We can’t put our finger on it but it is definitely a concern."