Irish League manager insists player safety has to be the priority after Paul Heatley incident

While playing against Feeney’s Seasiders, Heatley crashed into an advertising board attached to a wall which surrounds the pitch at Taylors Avenue and was treated at the Co Antrim venue before being transported to hospital.

The fixture was abandoned in the 53rd minute after the Irish League legend suffered a nasty wound to his head, but he’s now on the road to full recovery.

Heatley has said his incident highlights “the dire need clubs are in to really improve facilities” and has called for “action rather than a lot of talking around investments”.

His situation wasn’t the first of its type in Northern Irish football – Scott Irvine suffered a fractured skull after colliding with a wall while playing for Larne against Carrick in an Irish Cup fixture in January 2015.

Glentoran’s Bobby Burns had to undergo surgery for a broken jaw after hitting advertising boards in a Premiership match against Crusaders at Seaview in October 2023 with the Glens calling for a full investigation due to play continuing while he received treatment.

Having witnessed the incident from mere metres away, Feeney, a former Irish League player, knows safety is of paramount importance, and with 20 clubs set to receive money through the NI Football Fund, he hopes strides can be made.

"The first thing we have to look at is making the pitches safe for players and then maybe trying to improve facilities,” he said. “The likes of Carrick, I'm sure one of the first things they'll do when they get money through this funding is try and knock that wall down and make it a bit safer.

"You need something around the ground, but maybe we could make it a bit wider or safer if you do hit it.

"That's where the priority needs to be, in safety rather than something that's easy on the eye. It wouldn't even be a big deal for most clubs, it would only take a few quid to get that sorted. That could be the priority.

"We've a fence around ours (at Clandeboye Park), Seaview has a fence where Bobby Burns' incident happened, you even see players in the Premier League in England get nudged at a bad angle and they hit the advertising boards.

"It's a freak thing when it happens, but if somebody has a bad fall like Heats on the head, you have to be concerned. Thank goodness he's ok and came through it.

"Those walls are dangerous no matter what way you hit them and I was very relieved to hear he was ok. Our physio went over to help and they were saying he was talking and functioning, which was great because that's the first thing you want to find out."

Speaking after Saturday’s match against Larne, Carrick manager Stephen Baxter admitted he was very concerned about Heatley and is looking forward to seeing him again.

"Paul's at home and we're all delighted about that,” he said. "It was very, very scary last weekend, one that I was very worried about over the weekend.

"The staple stitches came out after coming home from hospital and he had to go back and get it redone.

"It was a very large gaping wound and we were all terribly concerned about it, worried about his neck.

"When you hit a board at that speed, any neck and head injury is a real worry. But thankfully the doctors are pleased about all of that and happy to let him home.

"So he's had a week – I think he needed to take a week off to recover from all of this. We haven't seen him. So we'll maybe see him hopefully next week and see how he's getting on.”