THE football career of a prominent young Northern Ireland player may have been cut short after he suffered multiple injuries in an attack by masked men wielding spiked cudgels in Newry, Co Down, on Tuesday night.
Mr Donal Gray (19), who is a first team player for the Glenavon club and a former Northern Ireland youth international, underwent surgery in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, yesterday for injuries which included a fractured leg and kneecap, puncture wounds and severe facial cuts.
The attack on him had all the hallmarks of a so called "punishment" beating, and members of the masked gang which dragged him from his home are reported to have said they were from the IRA.
The men, one of whom was also said to have produced a handgun, burst into the house in Barcroft Park, Newry, in the early hours. They took the man to a garden and beat him severely with clubs which had been spiked with nails.
The RUC described the assault as "thuggery" and last night was still trying to establish a motive for it. The player was taken first to Daisy Hill Hospital outside Newry, but afterwards was transferred to the Belfast hospital.
His father, Edward, said that the gang had offered no reason for the attack. "The front door glass was put in. They said `This is the Provisional IRA'. Donal was sitting there with me.
"They trailed him out and beat him in the hallway and then took him out into the garden and beat him in the garden. They wore masks.
There were four in the house and I think there were maybe another two or three outside".
The injured man was said to be in a stable condition last night. He began his football career with Portadown and was later with the Scottish club Partick Thistle. He played for the under 16 and under 18 Northern Ireland teams.
Condemning the attack, an Alliance spokesman, Mr Pete Whitecroft, said it "goes to show that the IRA are not interested in justice or peace."
In another apparent "punishment" attack, a man was beaten with iron bars and suffered a broken arm in the Markets area of Belfast on Tuesday night. He is recovering in hospital.