Wicklow player and Killygordon native Jonny Carlin added to Donegal training panel

Donegal manager Jim McGuinness is said to have looked as far as Leinster in terms of recruiting players to the Donegal senior team with Jonny Carlin said to have joined the training panel over the winter break. 

Killygordon native Carlin, who has previously played for Red Hugh’s and Setanta and won a Wicklow IFC medal in October 2023, joined Oisín McConville’s county setup last season but is now transferred back to the Red Hugh's club.

Despite facing relegation to Division 4 of the National League, Wicklow delivered solid performances in the Leinster championship beating Division 3 champions Westmeath before losing out to Kildare by one point. 

Reeling back to October 21, 2022, Carlin, who has not played underage football with Donegal in the past, was lying on a hospital bed in Santry after having ACL surgery, and exactly 12 months later to the day he was collecting the Man of the Match award after the D’Arcy Sand Intermediate Football Championship final with his adopted club of Barndarrig. 

The former League of Ireland soccer player who has worn the jerseys of Athlone Town and Cabinteely played a massive role in the decider against Annacurra in 2023 but really showed his class when stepping up to take a late penalty to snatch a magical victory from the jaws of defeat and send the Kilmacurra club up to Senior ranks for the first time in their history. 

Carlin won the Donegal Junior championship and the Ulster football championship before he came to Barndarrig as an S&C coach with team manager and Sligo native Damien Gilligan. 

With less than a month away from Donegal’s opening league game against Kerry, McGuinness and his team are preparing in every way they possibly can, with the inter-county senior team said to have played two friendly games earlier this month against Westmeath and London after returning from their training camp in Abu Dhabi