A Belfast club have lodged an official complaint with the Antrim county board as the fallout from Sunday’s football quarter-final continues.
Images and video clips from Creggan’s Antrim SFC victory over Rossa have gone viral with remarkable footage showing the two teams struggling in horrendous playing conditions at St Enda’s.
The defending champions eventually prevailed 1-8 to 0-6 with Ruairi McCann scoring the game’s only goal in the first half.
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However, after footage of the playing conditions were shared on Antrim GAA’s social media platforms, several people questioned whether the game should have been abandoned by match referee Karol Doherty.
It has since emerged that Rossa dual star and former Antrim player Michael Armstrong will miss the rest of the season after suffering a cruciate injury in the first half of Sunday’s game while Aaron Devlin is awaiting the results of a scan on his knee injury.
Armstrong, 32, will also be a huge loss for Rossa's hurlers as they bid to defeat Loughgiel in Sunday's Antrim SHC quarter-final at Dunsilly.
The West Belfast club have since submitted an official complaint to the Antrim county board and Rossa football manager Hugh McGettigan says more players could have been injured.
“We had our warm-up at the top end of the pitch and we didn’t see how bad the bottom end of the pitch was until the start of the game,” said McGettigan
“The referee had two opportunities to call the game off. One at the start of the game and again at half-time.
“After half-time, it was like a monsoon.
“Michael (Armstrong) and Aaron (Devlin) both sustained injuries in the first half.
“It was only the fact that both teams respected each other and the game was played in a sporting manner. . . it could have been much worse.
“Our team doctor and physio both complained to the linesman in the second half.
“We made appeals to have the game called. Our medical team felt it was unsafe.”
McGettigan said the injury to Armstrong was a huge blow to his side, but didn’t use it as an excuse for their defeat to the county champions.
“Michael is one of our top dual players and he sustained a really bad arm injury when playing for Antrim against Carlow a few years ago,” added the Rossa manager.
“He has had a rotten run with injuries, but these kinds of injuries are avoidable.
“He was a big part of our team and going off after 15 minutes didn’t help.
“We can’t complain about the result and nobody in Rossa is complaining about the result, but we don’t believe it was fair to continue the game in those conditions.”
The Antrim executive has been contacted for a response to the letter of complaint sent by the O’Donovan Rossa club, but at the time of publication, we have yet to receive a reply.
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