Johnny Phillips: It's great to see Kevin MacDonald make the headlines
It was great to spend some time on Thursday down at Exeter City’s training ground. The Cliff Hill complex is currently undergoing a transformation with new changing, dining and office facilities almost completed, replacing some archaic ‘temporary’ accommodation which was first put up in the early 1970s.
The reason for the visit was to have a chat with the club’s new goal scoring hero Kevin MacDonald. The former Wolves midfielder has scored for the Grecians over the last two weekends, his first goals since returning from his kidney transplant in 2021.
MacDonald has spent his entire career managing IGA Nephropathy, a chronic disease which causes the deterioration of the kidney’s performance. It hadn’t stopped a great career, helping Wolves to promotion with a record points tally in League One and then becoming part of the Fulham side promoted to the Premier League.
Then two years ago, blood tests revealed the time had come for a transplant. His brother Fraser stepped forward as the donor and after a long and arduous journey back into the professional game, MacDonald is back doing what he loves under fellow Scot Gary Caldwell down in Devon. Our feature will be on Soccer Saturday later this afternoon.
I’m at Leeds United this afternoon for their Premier League match with Brighton and Hove Albion. There’s little danger of the match being postponed despite the sub-zero overnight temperatures and forecast of more snow but that won’t be the case elsewhere in the region.
Today’s fixture list at grassroots level and even in the lower divisions could be decimated in the north as the cold weather bites once more. I was hoping that by the second weekend of March we’d have a bit of spring sunshine on the way but no such luck.
Last Tuesday I was working at Sutton United where the pitch started freezing over in the corners during the second half as the temperature plummeted. It was too much for the Crawley Town analyst who was stationed alongside me on the gantry. He had to pack in filming after half-time as his camera kit froze over.
