Michael Funston making peace with watching brief after career-ending ACL tear

Michael Funston admits that his time playing competitive football is likely to be over after suffering a cruciate ligament injury.

Funston suffered the injury during Bonagee United’s derby defeat to Letterkenny Rovers in the Brian McCormick Cup earlier this month.

The 39-year-old former Finn Harps midfielder, who returned to his home club at Dry Arch Park seven years ago, 

“This will probably finish me playing competitive football,” Funston tells Donegal Live. 

“I’ve always kept myself in good shape and I look after myself, but I just know with my own standards that I couldn’t just tick a box with it. If it was just going out to play a game of football, I don’t think so.

“Myself, Gareth Harkin and Keith Cowan spoke about this actually, about how we were one injury from being finished off. That’s the way with older players. When you get to a certain age, your body’s ability to build back isn’t as good. I’d be able to come back and play football, but all the sharpness would be gone.” 

Funston is working with physio Mickey McGlynn and awaiting a consultation, but doesn’t expect to have corrective surgery to repair a full tear of his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) until after Christmas.

“There’s no real panic on it,” Funston says. “The rehab and recovery is long anyway so there’s no rushing back from it. If I was younger, I’d be mad to just get it done and get back at it. Realistically, at 39, there’s no point in rushing; you’d be rushing back for nothing really.”

Funston had scored Bonagee’s match winning goal in the opening game of the season, a 1-0 win at Fanad United. However, 33 minutes into the tussle with Letterkenny Rovers, he just knew.

“I broke bones in different places over the years, but this was different,” he says. 

“I felt this popping sensation. From my knee down to my foot, it was a shooting pain. It was one of the ones, I just knew instinctively that I had done damage.

“I was going up for a header with Joel Gorman. There was no contact and the ball went over the two of us. I came down and landed on the knee. It was as simple as that. A lot of these injuries happen so simply, from boys running in a straight line to taking a wee twist.”

Bonagee are now under the direction of new manager Packie Mailey, a former team-mate of Funston’s at Harps who has taken over from Jason Gibson. While in the colours of Harps, Funston scored 32 goals in 335 appearances. 

Bonagee begin their Premier Division campaign this Sunday when welcoming Gweedore Celtic to Dry Arch Park.

Funston has already had to get accustomed to having a watching brief.

“I was down the last couple of nights watching training and I’ll just have to get used to that,” he says. “We’re only three weeks in and I miss it already, but that’s just the way it is.

“I did my cartilage when I was 21. I played on for about four weeks and I came back at eight weeks after surgery with Ray Moran in Cappagh. I had the hunger to play and the hunger to be fit. I came back and never had any more bother. This is actually my first injury that you’d call long-term.

“I could offer more helping Packie out than being on the pitch. You have to be honest with yourself at times and I’ve always been honest. That’s something for the other side of it - and I do understand it’s a long-term injury - but I always had my eye out on helping out someone. I know Packie very well and get on with him very well.”