Drogheda United goalkeeper Luca Gratzer played his first 90 minutes of football on Wednesday night since picking up an injury in pre-season.

Luke McQuillan caught up with Luca after last night’s draw against St. Pat’s where Jordan Adeyemo scored the opener for Drogheda which was later cancelled out by Jason McClelland’s deflected strike.

Gratzer explained the feeling of being back out on the pitch after months without a match.

“It took me a few minutes to get used to the pace of the game at the start, but as soon as I found my rhythm it didn’t feel like I hadn’t played in months,” he explained. 

The keeper used the time during lockdown to recover from the foot injury he picked up at the start of pre-season.

“It was very frustrating for myself, even during lockdown I was struggling with the injury. At least I had sufficient time to recover and was able to come back 100% fit again.”

Luca also spoke about the precautions in place to protect players, staff and volunteers.

“It’s a very different feeling in training and especially in matches with all the precautions in place. 

“Hopefully it will not be long until we can start allowing some spectators into stands again to get some atmosphere and energy back into United Park.”

“Excited and very confident,” Gratzer said, when asked about the upcoming league resumption. 

“We have had a good few weeks training, the team has performed very well in the last two games. Hopefully we get another good result on Saturday against Shels, and really push on from there.” 

Drogs host Shelbourne on Saturday in a final friendly before the resumption of the league.