Denn's Martin Cahill suffered a fractured cheekbone and jaw.

Paul Fitzpatrick

Former Cavan senior football captain Martin Cahill's season appears to be over after he suffered a fractured cheekbone and a fractured jaw in an off-the-ball incident in an ACFL Division 2 match against Mountnugent last Sunday in Crosskeys.

The 30-year-old was playing at midfield for Denn against Mountnugent when he sustained the injuries midway through the second half. Cahill was down for ten minutes before leaving the field.

A scuffle developed afterwards, with referee Raymond Tynan dismissing Mountnugent's David Givney and Graham Patterson and Denn's Colin Kiernan and Adrian Cahill - a brother of Martin's - on straight red cards.

Cahill was hospitalised after the match and attended a specialist in Dublin yesterday morning (Tuesday).

One of his Denn team-mates told The Anglo-Celt that the incident "would put you off playing football".

"What happened was a disgrace," he said.

"It wasn't football. It would piss you off, it would put you off playing football.

"I'm not saying Denn are saints but at the end of the day Martin has to get up and go to work in the morning.

"The last 15 minutes were just played out with barely a hit in it, everyone was just sickened by it."

County board secretary Liam McCabe confirmed on Monday afternoon that the referee's report wouldn't be examined by the CCC until last night (Tuesday) at the earliest.