'Always an honour wearing that top': Former Glentoran and Swansea City attacker thanks Cliftonville fans after confirming summer exit
Rory Donnelly has confirmed he will be departing Cliftonville this summer, bringing an end to his third spell at Solitude, saying it was “always an honour wearing that top”.
The 33-year-old returned to the North Belfast outfit from Glentoran ahead of the most recent campaign with injuries limiting the attacker to only 13 Premiership appearances and just one since November.
Donnelly was an unused substitute in Cliftonville’s European play-off semi-final win over the Glens last week and his sole top-flight strike came in a 3-1 home defeat to Larne in September.
He started his senior career with the Reds before earning a move to Swansea City in 2012 and spent five years across the water, enjoying loan spells at Coventry City and Tranmere Rovers prior to joining Gillingham on a permanent deal.
Donnelly netted 10 goals in League One during his maiden campaign at the Gills and returned to Cliftonville in 2017.
After spending four years with Glentoran, Donnelly rejoined the Reds as Jim Magilton looked to replace the likes of Ronan Hale, Ben Wilson and Sam Ashford.
"Firstly I wanna thank Jim for the chance he gave me to put a Reds top back on, always an honour wearing that top,” Donnelly posted on social media. “It has been a difficult and frustrating season on and off the pitch for myself and I truly believe no player deserves a contract without fighting for one, which I was unable to do due to injury.
"Secondly I would like to thank all my team mates and staff at the club, this year hasn’t been easy but just wanna say I’m proud of how everybody stuck together.
"Lastly to you the fans, personally I wanna say thank you for welcoming me back to the club and sorry again that I couldn’t keep myself fit. I pushed myself to the limits to try and get myself back for the end of the season.
"Just didn’t happen for me, that’s football though.
"The Reds fan base is something else. Thank you Cliftonville Football Club, once a Red, always a Red.”