VIDEO: Portlaoise player recovering from broken jaw after devastating hit from Michael Darragh Macauley

This writer was at Sunday’s Leinster club senior football final between Portlaoise and eventual champions Ballyboden St Enda’s.

It was a game played in tough underfoot conditions.

But it’s widely agreed that the game was one of the best exhibitions of football anyone has witnessed in the AIB club series for many years.

Ballyboden won the game by a single point, and to compound Portlaoise’s heartbreak, one of their players was seriously injured in an incident early in the game.

Michael Darragh Macauley was trying to regain possession on the touchline early in the match when he went with a full-blooded shoulder into the face/shoulder of Eoghan Whelan.

via GIPHY

MDMA Having a great game, apart from his goal he absolutely pole axed a fella with a fair shoulder, a serious handfull on form #TheToughest

— Rory's Stories (@RorysStories) December 6, 2015

https://twitter.com/damienwalsh7/status/673504659869458432

The Ballyboden man picked up the ball and played on with referee John Hickey not deciding anything untoward in the robust challenge.

However, having been at the game, the Dublin footballer looked several times in the direction of the stricken Portlaoise man in the moments after the challenge and it was clear that he was concerned about the player.

Brian Smyth with a wide for Portlaoise as Eoghan Whelan will go off with a blood injury. Colm Finn replaces him. #TheToughest #GAA

— Off The Ball Breakfast (@OffTheBallAM) December 6, 2015

And he had every right to be as it emerged last night that Whelan has suffered a broken jaw, but decided to play on despite the injury and even went on to kick a point.