Unlucky break as Donegal fan suffers broken foot celebrating Langan's goal
Castlefinn native Shannon Friel got caught in the seat in front in the process of standing up as Michael Langan burst forward to hit Donegal's goal, resulting in breaking her foot
A Donegal fan got caught up in the celebrations of Michael Langan’s goal, and suffered a broken foot in the process.
Shannon Friel, from Castlefinn, was in attendance at Croke Park in Dublin as Donegal defeated Monaghan 1-26 to 1-20 in the quarter-final of the All-Ireland after a strong second-half performance.
Shannon and her family were sitting near the front of the Lower Davin stand, just in front of the net in which Langan scored into.
With empty seats in front, she put her foot on the seat immediately ahead, but as the St Michael’s man played a quick one-two with Michael Murphy and broke through, there was a quick scramble to stand up.
“The goal came so quickly that we jumped up and I forgot my foot was there and it just kind of rolled over,” Shannon tells DonegalLive.
“I jumped up because everyone was on their feet - it all happened so fast and I went down so quick, I didn’t realise they got the goal!
“I straightened it up after and I wasn’t able to stand up. One of the girls gave me paracetamol and I stayed until the end.
“My brother Gavin asked to see if there was any ice at the bar and when I took off my shoe, I realised it was black and blue and swollen. We went to the first aid tent, and the St John’s ambulance doctors and paramedics were so nice and helpful.
“The bone was sticking out and they told me it was broken so they wheeled me out past the houses and they put me in a taxi to Beaumount Hospital.”
With a long wait in Beaumont Hospital, Shannon received crutches and went back up to Donegal before getting seen in Letterkenny University Hospital on Sunday, where she was put in a boot.
A secondary school teacher in Swords in Dublin, she’s fortunate to be off on summer holidays, although it may put a dent on her enjoyment of the break.
“We were home about 1am on Saturday morning, and my mum had to drive my car home and she hates driving in Dublin,” Shannon adds. “I’ll have 10 days from when I get the boot off until I go back to work so I have ten days of summer holidays. But it could be worse, at least I am off work.”
It’s not going to stop her from making the semi-final against Meath, however, and she joked that the pain was worth the comeback win over Monaghan.
“I’ll have to suss out how to get closer to the ground in the car because I won’t be able to do a long walk to the stadium but maybe someone might know a way,” Shannon says.
“At least it was worth my while staying to the end, if we had lost the game then the journey home would have been double the misery, the win took the pain away a wee bit. But I’ll be more careful when I’m celebrating in the semi-final!”