Galway United manager Shane Keegan confirms signing of Danny Furlong

Galway United manager Shane Keegan has confirmed the signing of former Wexford Youth striker Danny Furlong ahead of the 2018 season's kick-off next week.

The striker has spent the past year-and-a-half in New Zealand with Southern United having previously worked under Keegan at Wexford during the most successful period in the club’s history.

Wexford won the First Division in 2015 with Furlong contributing an astonishing 30 goals in 28 appearances as the side won promotion to the top flight for the first time.

And Laois native Keegan confirmed the striker's return to the League of Ireland when he spoke to extratime.ie at the SSE Airtricity League launch at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.

“Myself and Dan have been chatting the last couple of weeks and we basically wrapped it up earlier last week,” Keegan told extratime.ie.

“He’s back in the country tomorrow. We’ll give him a little bit of time at home as he obviously hasn’t seen his family for 18 months at this stage.

“We’ll look to get him up and settled into a new house on Sunday and hit the ground running on Monday.”

The 28-year-old managed six goals from 25 appearances in the Premier Division in 2016 as Wexford went on to suffer relegation at the end of the season.

The striker departed for New Zealand before the conclusion of that season after being offered a coaching role with the New Zealand FA in Dunedin,

That allowed him to take up a playing role with New Zealand Premiership side Southern United, for whom the Rosslare native scored 12 goals in 22 appearances.

In a statement on Southern United’s social media the striker said: “It’s been a massive decision to make and one I haven’t taken lightly but at this stage of my football career an opportunity like this probably won’t come again.

“Being so far from family and friends has been challenging at times so the combination of an offer being presented that I never expected and wanting to be closer to my family, I’ve decided to return home to Ireland.”

The First Division kicks off on Friday, February 23^rd, as Galway United host Athlone Town at Eamonn Deacy Park (kick-off 7:45pm).