'It's been a disaster for me'

Patrick McEleney has admitted to playing through pain and without training this year as an injury-plagued season comes to an end for the Derry City captain.

The 31-year-old has started just nine league games in 2023 as opposed to 21 in 2022, and has not completed 90 minutes since the game against Shelbourne at Tolka Park on March 31.

A troublesome Achilles injury has plagued McEleney, who will finally undergo an operation to fix the problem after the final game of the season against St. Patrick’s Athletic tomorrow.  

“It’s been no secret about the injury I was trying to get through and that makes it ten times worse whenever that frustration is piling up with the frustration of the results. It’s been difficult, there’s no point lying about it,” he said.

“I’ll go for the surgery now and try and get it fixed, but I’ve just been playing and trying to get through it. It’s so frustrating really just trying to get off the bench and get whatever minutes you can and get out there and try to help. Obviously, during the European period I was just coming off the bench and stuff like that which was frustrating, but it is what it is.”

It has been a stop-start season since with McEleney starting just once in the 13 games since the Europa Conference League game against KuPS, a game he remembers well.

“It’s hard to play your best form, especially when you’re in pain,” he admits. “That’s the main thing. I haven’t trained all year, and I’m 31 now and I’m just trying to rock up and play matches. It’s not exactly ideal.

“There were some games like the KuPS game at home where it was needs must. I started in that, and get through it, in pain, and then we go away to KuPS, and after five minutes I knew I was in trouble.  Then it’s a restart, and I’m coming off the bench for a while again and that was it. It’s just been a disaster.”

Despite the pain, McEleney was desperate to play, and he admits the decision was made to allow the captain to contribute whenever he could.

“I wasn’t lying saying that I felt okay,” he explained. “It was how I felt and what I felt. The injury is a frustrating one because some days it’s good, but it’ll just come back then, but we came to the decision during the year that we will just get through it to the end of the season and then get it fixed then.

“It’s just been so frustrating for me, because last season I was coming into the end of the season off the back of 15 games in a row in terms of starts and 90 minutes leading into the cup final. Now, since March really, it’s been off and on.

“I suppose in hindsight looking at it, but when I was in the moment and we were going into Europe, I wanted to play. I played in the KuPS game and actually played well in the game at home and we got through that round. You could look at it in a lot of ways, but me and the club, and Ruaidhri and the medical staff came to that decision.”

As a forgettable season for him personally comes to an end, McEleney admitted he remains very optimistic that he can finally put the problem behind him.

“It’s about getting it fixed now and being ready, coming back, which I will be in my eyes,” he stated. “I’m optimistic about it. It’s not been ideal, but I’m just looking forward to getting going again. I said to the manager the other day, I just can’t wait to the new season to be honest.

“The procedure isn’t as complicated as it seems. I should be back sharpish. It’s not like a six-month or an eight-month job, it’s a quite quick return, so it’s about getting it fixed, getting it done when the season is over and getting the head down.”

Second place

Derry City will finish in second place if they get at least a draw against St. Pat’s tomorrow night at the Brandywell, very much a consolation prize considering the club’s aims when the season started.

“It’s not what we set out to do,” McEleney acknowledged. “It’s not as if we were setting up in pre-season to finish second, but the fact of the matter is we fell short and we want to try and do the business now on Friday.”

The City captain did admit that Shamrock Rovers deserved to be crowned champions, but also acknowledged that Derry City missed countless opportunities to catch them.

“You could say we threw it away, but there were loads of things that happened throughout the year,” he said. “It wasn’t one thing, it wasn’t two things, you’re talking ten things. At the end of the day, they deserved to win it and that’s it. It’s over the course of the year and it’s in black and white. There are no excuses to be made.”