Fermanagh veteran Ryan McCluskey chooses his words more carefully than Zlatan Ibrahimovic as he enters the autumn of his intercounty career.

Both men are still going strong at 35 and the Swede recently said he had made people "eat their balls" with his displays for Manchester United so far this season. As McCluskey tries to put his hip injury woes behind him and prepares to embark on his 17th season with the Ernemen, the Enniskillen Gaels clubman - named in his county's 26-man McKenna Cup squad - told The Irish News:

"I'll be slightly more polite than Mr Ibrahimovic this morning, but over the last number of years I think I've looked after myself in the right manner, so it would be nice to get a crack at it.

"It was a case of weighing things up and seeing how the body would recover, and what way the consultant judged things. It was up in the air I suppose.

"I'd be close to Leon Carters, our strength and conditioning coach, and it was one of those injuries you have to rehab straight away, get the physiotherapy done on it and do your own exercises. But the rehab has gone well, I've been able to get a bit of match time in training so things have been going to plan.

"When you go back to the cut and thrust of McKenna Cup games even, we'll learn a lot more about where we're at in terms of the leg. Before, it might have been one game at a time, now it's one session at a time."

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