Roker Roundup: “Mick’s absolutely mullered him”- insight into Colin Healy’s Sunderland leg break

Brown on McCarthy breaking Healy’s leg

Ex-Sunderland midfielder Colin Healy suffered a double leg break against Coventry City in the December 2003 following an horrific tackle from Youssef Safri.

He was out of action for almost a year before returning to training the following October, unfortunately Healy suffered another set-back shortly after as another double leg break on the training ground just about ended his Sunderland career.

Speaking at the time, the then Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy denied rumours in the national press that he was involved in the injury, saying:

I was on the pitch, I was involved in the game but there was no contact with me. The boss did not do it.

Colin went to protect the ball, stood on the ground and fell over.

However, speaking on the UndrTheCosh podcast with Michael Gray, former Sunderland striker Chris Brown gave a different version of events.

Brown claims that it was McCarthy who broke the Irishman’s leg, saying that the manager “absolutely mullered” Healy - who was then involved in training on a no contact basis:

I don’t think anything good can come out of managers joining in [training sessions] though because [Mick] McCarthy used to join in.

He used to muller people, properly muller people.

Colin Healy had a bad break in his leg and it was live on Sky, a horrific one and he was out for like nine months, say.

So he’s come back and obviously when you come back from a long injury, when you join back in for training it’s none contact - give him a bib, if Colin’s got a bib on he’s floating.

Someone’s passed the ball to Col’, he’s got on the half-turn and Mick’s absolutely mullered him, broke his leg again.

Obviously Mick felt bad but his argument was ‘well was he really ready to come back to training?’.

It wasn’t a bad tackle but he’s just kind of tackled him.

After recovering from that injury, Healy would leave the club at the end of his contract to join Scottish side Livingston.

You can watch the full podcast with Michael Gray in the YouTube link below:

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Former loanee to return to Spurs

Former Sunderland loanee Kazaiah Sterling has spent the first half of this season on loan at League One rivals Doncaster Rovers but only managed three games before succumbing to injury.

The forward picked up a dead leg at the beginning of September that he has struggled to shake off and he is set to remain on the sidelines for some time yet, which will see Rovers exercise a break clause in Sterling’s contract.

Speaking to the Doncaster Free Press, Doncaster’s manager Darren Moore revealed that the injury will keep him of action for too long to be beneficial to the club’s loan agreement.

Despite that, Moore says that he will invite the player to Doncaster and hopes he will be fit for the second half of the season, wherever that may be:

The best thing for Kaz is to just get himself as fit as possible as soon as he can, the scan showed it’s not healed much more. And with him being all about explosive power and pace, it would be the wrong thing for him to try to train on it now.

He needs to let it really settle down.

I’m going to make contact with him and invite him up. It’ll be good to see him in person.

I’m not saying he’s not going to recover but the timescale of our loan agreement, it doesn’t look like he’s going to recover to play much part in our first half of the season.

It’s sad for him because from our perspective we saw signs of a very quick, powerful individual that was going to play a real good part in terms of the team.

It’s been just one unfortunate injury and an innocuous one that no one expected to take so long to recover from.

It was a fantastic opportunity for him to come for first team experience at a good club in League One, the door was open for him.

I’m sure he’d have made a big impact because the signs were there. It’s not to be and our main concerns are for him to get fit so he can be available to play some part in the second half of the season.

Photo by Mark Fletcher/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Former targets attract Premier League interest

Sunderland were linked with a move for Leyton Orient’s prolific forward Macauley Bonne in the summer, as Jack Ross looked to strengthen his strikeforce.

Bonne moved to newly promoted Championship side Charlton Athletic for a fee of around £200,000 instead and is already attracting interest from elsewhere.

According to Talksport, Newcastle United, Leicester City and Fulham are all interested in a move for the striker in the January transfer window.

Bonne’s Charlton team-mate Lyle Taylor was even closer to a move to the Stadium of Light before heading to the Valley and he too is being linked with a move to the Premier League.

Taylor is out of contract in the summer and Sheffield United and Burnley have both been linked with a move for the player.

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