Christy Toye intends to make up for lost time having returned to the Donegal colours.

The experienced 30 year old missed out on the 2013 season having been struck down with a condition known as trigeminal neuralgia which affects the trigeminal nerve in the face and causes excruciating pain.

"There's pain in your teeth, your ear and even in the back of your eye. It was hard to get my head around it for a while. At one stage I thought it might never go," he recalled to the Irish Independent.

"You can understand people who have it and how it affects their lives and work. I was off work for a while.

"There are different variations of it and people recover differently from it. It is basically the same type of pain, a dull aching throbbing in the side of your face. It was there constantly for four to five months until it started to ease off. I still get bouts of it here and there.

"The doctors have told me, because of my age, that I will eventually get over it. It usually affects older people from their 50s onwards. It's very rare that someone in their 20s, as I was at the time, gets it."

The Naomh Micheal clubman now appreciates 'every minute' of his time on the playing field having made his long awaited return in the Division 2 round one victory over Laois.

"When you are hitting the wrong side of 30 there are not too many opportunities left. I didn't want to just leave it at that.

"I wanted one last proper crack at it and hopefully now I can get a bit of training under my belt and get to the level required.

"Since I went back training I've made all the sessions and have recovered well. But you only take it from game to game, session to session. I appreciate every minute of it." Tweet

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