A spokesperson for hospital treating a promising Fermanagh GAA player left in a coma after an altercation at a game in the United States has said he remains in a critical but stable condition.
Mark McGovern (22) from the Belcoo O’Rahilly’s club in Fermanagh was taken to hospital after the incident while playing in his debut for Ulster GAA club San Francisco last Saturday night.
Last night doctors told police his injuries were caused by blunt force trauma to the head.
Mr McGovern has not regained consciousness but had shown signs of improvement and had responded to his friends, Fermanagh GAA spokeswoman Deirdre Donnelly said.
It was unclear what exactly had happened during the off-the-ball incident, she said.
Mr McGovern’s family and girlfriend have flown to the United States to join him at his bedside.
A mass will also be offered for his recovery in the St Philip’s Parish church, San Francisco at 7.30pm (3.30am Irish time).
“He has taken a very serious blow to the head,” Ms Donnelly told BBC radio. “We can't jump to conclusions. We don’t know what happened out there,” she said.
She expected that the authorities in San Francisco would investigate the incident and find out what happened.
There was a “waiting game” to see if he came through. It would take time to see if there were any long-term problems, but hopefully he would make a full recovery, Ms Donnelly said.
Police yesterday asked called on witnesses to the incident to come forward.
The student had travelled to San Francisco to play football for the summer with two other Belcoo team-mates, Emmet Scollan and Ciarán Flaherty, who also played in Saturday’s game. He had arrived just a week before the incident.
Due to a difficult jobs market he had travelled to San Francisco for the summer to have a holiday and play football while there, Ms Donnelly said.
Every year an estimated 400 Irish players with J1 student visas receive sanctions to transfer temporarily to a North American GAA club for the summer period.
Mr McGovern, who is on the fringes of the Fermanagh senior county side, lined out for the county in this year’s Dr McKenna Cup.