Derry manager Damian Barton says Brendan Rogers McKenna Cup final injury 'horrific'

Derry football manager Damian Barton has described the facial injury sustained by his player Brendan Rogers in last weekend's Dr McKenna Cup final as "horrific".

Rogers needed 14 stitches in his lip after a challenge by Tyrone's Tiernan McCann at the start of the game.

"I think Brendan was quite shocked. Some people were quite horrified," said the Derry manager.

"I'll leave it to other people to make up their minds."

The Slaughtneil man had the stitches inserted last Sunday and Barton expects Rogers to be out of action for a couple of more weeks.

Rogers was named at midfield for the McKenna Cup final and the match video suggested he may have been caught by McCann's right elbow immediately after challenging for the initial throw-in.

After the ball was thrown in, McCann came in from the side and the footage showed the Tyrone man clattering into Rogers although the Red Hand county player appeared to be focusing on the ball rather than the Derry midfielder when the contact was made.

"Brendan has been very quiet about it and we have been very quiet about it as well," said Barton after Derry's opening 3-13 to 1-10 Division 2 Football League victory over Fermanagh at Celtic Park.

"It was quite an horrific incident. I wouldn't like to expand on it to be quite frank.

Barton 'couldn't speak' after McKenna Cup final

"It was an incident that thankfully you don't see very often."

Barton added that he "couldn't speak" after the game such was his upset about the incident.

"I think it affected the mood of all of us.

"It overshadowed for me what was a positive night for football.

"I think the amount of respect that was shown between Derry and Tyrone was very evident but it's one of those things I'll let people make up their own minds about."

In terms of Sunday's opening league win, Barton felt that his team had laboured badly in the first half before going on to clinch a nine-point victory over the Erne County.

"We were very flat at the start of the game. We turned over a serious amount of ball under no pressure.

"I was glad to see our first goal going in (before half-time) and I was very happy to see half-time because it gave us an opportunity to restructure and talk about what we felt we were going wrong.

"Getting in the ball in early in the second half to our men inside worked nicely in the inclement conditions but we'll have to up our performances over the next couple of weeks."