Goodbye Charlie

RUN FOR HOME: Charlie MacDonald has headed back to London after his contract with Oldham was not extended.

CHARLIE MacDonald regrets that he wasn’t able to find the sort of consistent form at Athletic that would have made him a crowd-pleaser.

The energetic forward (33) packed his bags yesterday and set off back to London after being told the option for an extra year’s contract wouldn’t be taken up.

An injury-hit campaign did MacDonald no favours. And the experienced former Brentford, MK Dons and Leyton Orient forward admitted his thigh injury days after scoring in a man-of-the-match showing at Shrewsbury in November was a blow from which he never recovered.

Also on the way out of Boundary Park are the current longest-serving player, Kirk Millar, Danny Gosset and Terry Dunfield.

“Lee Johnson was straight with me and said that financially the club couldn’t take up the option,” MacDonald said. “I’m disappointed to leave, as I feel that the fans haven’t seen the best of me. Injuries have had a big impact. But saying that, I have made 15 starts and scored five goals. That’s probably the best average at the club.

“Until the injury I felt quite sharp. It was a struggle after that. I move on, but I wish the club all the best in the future.”

MacDonald, who is taking a degree in sports media, says he will start to assess his future plans next week.

“I’ll sit down with my advisors and we will look at the options,” he added. “It is usually slow at the start of summer in terms of clubs signing players, so it will probably take time. I still feel there is plenty of football left in me.”

Athletic have taken up one-year options on defender James Wilson and midfielder Carl Winchester, left-back David Mellor and defender Genseric Kusunga.

Athletic has formally offered new contracts to right-back Connor Brown, goalkeeper Paul Rachubka and midfielder James Wesolowski.

But defender Jonathan Grounds appears to be heading for the Championship with Birmingham City.