Paddy Durcan's return puts Mayo back on the front foot
Paddy Durcan has Mayo back on the front foot ahead of their do-or-die All-Ireland group game against Donegal this afternoon.
All of 378 days after tearing his ACL against Cavan last year, the 2019 All-Star wing-back returned to the Mayo starting team t o drive his team to a surprise victory over Tyrone.
Flattened by their Connacht final defeat to Galway and group stage loss to Cavan, Mayo recovered to see off the Ulster side 2-17 to 1-13 in Omagh with Durcan putting in a man of the match performance upon his return.
As well as scoring three points and assisting a fourth from left half-back, Durcan's performance could be summarised by 31 of his 34 in-play possessions taking place in the opposition half of the field. The other three possessions were all within 10 metres of halfway and beyond his own 65m line.
Almost half (47%) of his possessions resulted in him kicking or handpassing the ball forward, and that rose to 59% when you include his significant ball carries in which he then popped the ball to a runner off his shoulder or back out to a team mate on the loop.
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