CO MONAGHAN ATHLETE Shane McLaughlin, who had his carbon fibre blade stolen at the weekend, is to be fitted for a replacement one later today.

The specially-designed blade, which was custom fit for the 42-year-old, was stolen from a car outside his home on either Friday night or early on Saturday morning.

Speaking earlier this week, McLaughlin explained that he was due to take part in an athletics meeting in Berlin next week – and would be unable to take part without the blade.

However, it’s emerged he’s being fitted with a new one today, at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire – overseen by experts from Ability Matters.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, prosthetist Dino Christodoulou said the process would take two to three hours.

Christodoulou, who has been working with Shane for years, said the athlete knew what to expect – noting that he had some big competitions coming up, and that the prosthetics team were “always in the process of the changing things”.

“He’s well aware of the process of putting a new socket on,” he said – adding that the Monaghan man had been performing “exceptionally” with his blade in recent years.

He’ll have to ‘break in’ the new blade ahead of the Berlin Open event – which gets under way next week, Christodoulou explained.

I hate using the analogy of it being like tight leather shoes – but that’s a bit what it’s like.

“He knows the running-in period and he knows what to do to get himself comfortable.”

Meanwhile, Gardaí are still investigating the theft of Shane’s blade – and are appealing for anyone with information to get in contact.

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