Paddy McCartin’s impressive start to the pre-season has suffered a minor setback after the key forward injured his foot on Monday.

A minor mid-foot strain will see the 22-year-old on a modified training program until Christmas, when he is expected to return to full training.

Scans yesterday cleared McCartin of any significant damage to his right foot.

The key-forward has been one of the standouts in the pre-season to date, a fact General Manager of Football Performance Jamie Cox said would significantly lessen the impact of the injury.

“Paddy has built a really strong fitness base over the past few months and has shown huge improvement in his running capacity,” Cox said.

“During the second half of the season, through his break, and the start of pre-season, he was able to complete a significant amount of work.”

“He’ll be off legs for a few weeks but given he will be back in full training at the start of January, we wouldn’t expect his pre-season to be impacted too much.”