Glebe’s Nicholl in hospital after Coagh game

The Glebe outfit lost 2-1 in a game where their rivals had everything to gain and nothing to lose, however, the injury to Nicholl is more of a concern to Manager Jason Wilmont than the outcome of the game.

“We were very poor against Coagh and they wanted it more and then big Chris Nicholl picked up a serious injury and ended up in hospital.

“He went up for a header and landed awkwardly on his chest but he played on for about 20 minutes but I knew there was something wrong so we brought him off.

“He didn’t to hospital until Thursday because when he went on Tuesday night there were so many people and he would have had to wait five hours. When he was seen they discovered he has a collapsed lung, three broken ribs and two fractured ribs and he’s waiting to find out if he needs an operation in the Royal Victoria hospital because they aren’t happy with the way the lung is inflating.

“I’ve been in seeing him and he’s in good spirits, however, he is in terrible pain. He has a drain in at the moment and is on morphine and when you see that it really puts things all in perspective.

“It just shows you from something as simple as going up for a header, next thing you know you’re in hospital. I think the lung was actually punctured by one of the ribs because there was blood at the time.”

Following the drama and defeat on Tuesday night, Glebe travelled to Dollingstown on Saturday, returning home with a share of the spoils.

“We were brilliant on Saturday against Dollingstown. I only had 12 fit players including three or four Reserve players and I had to use a Reserve player in nets. Young Danny Tweed did nets and hardly put a foot wrong. The two goals weren’t his fault. We were two nil up, then they scored just before half time. Then they got a penalty at the start of the second half and we had a man sent off, then they had a man sent off. It was end to end stuff, they hit the bar then we had two or three chances to win it.

“If someone had given me a draw before we went there I would have taken it gladly. It shows you that two or three times this year when we have gone with the bare bones of a team that we can step up.”