DONEGAL All-Ireland winner Leo McLoone says he and his team-mates won’t reflect on their careers until they’re over.
He was speaking ahead of this Sunday’s Ulster sem-final clash with Down at Breffni Park (throw-in 2pm)..
“I think the time to sit back and enjoy it might be in 10 or 15 years time when it’s all over. We will look back and reflect at how good things were,” he said.
“But at the minute it was just kind of straight back into this year, there wasn’t much time to reflect on it. I think we drew the line in January that last year was over and the focus was now May 26 (the match against Tyrone) and thankfully we won and hopefully will keep it going now again.
“Down had a great win in Celtic Park against Derry, it’s a very hard place to go and get a win, but we know how good they are. They’ve six very good forwards who take a lot of watching. Even from last year’s game, it was a lot tighter than the score-line reflected. I think we definitely know how good they are.”
Karl Lacey is definitely out of the game after he underwent surgery on a knee cartilage injury two weeks ago.
“He didn’t train with the team at all last week, so I don’t think there’s any hope, sadly,” said Leo.
“Jim will have to look into the strength in depth of the squad and hopefully that the men in there can come on and do as good a job.”
McLoone says Jim McGuinness has had a huge influence on him personally and the rest of the squad.
“Jim was always someone we looked up to around my age group. He would have been playing for Donegal when I was a boy and we always looked up to him. For a while it was strange to be playing with him, but now he’s back in management.
“There are four of us on the Donegal panel from Glenties (Anthony Thompson, Marty Boyle and Dermot Molloy are the others) and we always had great admiration for Jim,” he added.
Donegal play Down in the Ulster GAA Football Championship semi-final on Sunday, June 23 at Kingspan Breffni Park, Cavan.
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