By Johnny Morton

Copyright newsletter

Just after half-time in Saturday’s Premiership fixture against Bangor at Taylors Avenue, Irish League legend Heatley collided with a wall surrounding the pitch, crashing into an advertising board. Heatley was treated on the pitch before being transported to hospital and was discharged late on Saturday night after treatment for his injuries. His incident wasn’t the first of its type in Northern Irish football – Scott Irvine suffered a fractured skull after colliding with a wall while playing for Larne against Carrick in an Irish Cup fixture in January 2015. Glentoran’s Bobby Burns had to undergo surgery for a broken jaw after hitting advertising boards in a Premiership match against Crusaders at Seaview in October 2023 with the Glens calling for a full investigation due to play continuing while he received treatment. Heatley’s scary moment has prompted further questions over the safety of Irish League grounds and he feels it’s a critical issue which needs to be addressed immediately. “I started to think and weigh up other clubs and their grounds,” Heatley told BBC Sport NI. “You do start to analyse things and wonder, ‘why is it there’. Is there something that can be done? “As a supporter of Irish League football I think it’s relevant to have all parties learn from this experience. “It sometimes takes a traumatic event to spur some action, something that needs to be done and hopefully this does create action rather than a lot of talking around investments into clubs and rectifying any risks that are associated with them. “I think this incident highlights the dire need the clubs are in to really improve facilities around the clubs. “Some things that can happen in football you can’t control, but others you do have control over and improving players’ safety is paramount. “It’s time to step things up and eradicate silly environments that just puts players’ safety at risk because what happened I think could have been controlled and dealt with. “Hopefully scenarios like that are looked at through all clubs and we make sure no unnecessary incidents happen. It could have been a lot worse, it could have been really, really bad.” Heatley admits hearing about the incident is “traumatic” and he’s still suffering from periods of dizziness following the collision. “They [hospital staff] were fantastic in their response, I was very quickly scanned,” he added. “They indicated quickly that there was no blood where it shouldn’t be, no breakages, then [I was] released later that night. “Within a couple of hours I bled out again [from the wound], ambulance out here in the middle of the night and straight back in to close it up again. “Then really it’s just the healing time. It’s still quite raw, I’m still recovering and it’s still a wee bit foggy in my mind. Wee bits of dizziness are still playing a part.”