Monaghan manager Malachy O’Rourke has angrily hit back at suggestions Mark McHugh was specifically targeted in the Ulster Final. 
McHugh was forced off early in the match following a strong challenge from Monaghan player Stephen Gollogly who was also forced off following the collision.
Subsequently McHugh had to spend two nights in hospital with concussion a perforated ear drum and a 5 centimetre tear in his quad muscle.
Their have been insinuations since that this was part of Mongahan’s game plan against the All-Ireland champions and that they specifically targeted to take McHugh out of the game even if it resulted in their own player getting hurt.
These insinuations have angered the Monghan manager.
O’Rourke said,
“We have great respect for Mark McHugh and the whole Donegal set up.”
“But we have great respect for Stephen Gollogly too and would be very upset if there was any insinuation Mark McHugh was targeted by us, or by Stephen Gollogly or anybody else.”
“I think anybody that knows Stephen Gollogly knows that he is a wholehearted player and we wouldn’t have expected him not to be fully committed to the ball.” 
“People forget he suffered a bad injury out of it as well, it’s not as if he’s a kamikaze who’d be prepared to do that.”
“If there was an insinuation that there was a deliberate ploy to go out and take somebody out of the game then that would leave a sour taste to be honest because that’s nowhere near the truth.”
“We know in our minds we didn’t go out to take someone out of it, we went out to play the game as hard and fair as we could.”