Fan furore just a ‘side show’, says O’Donnell

Hurling’s newest hero has spoken about the three hours that took him from substitute to superstar.

Clare’s Shane O’Donnell got a surprise start in the All-Ireland final replay and bagged himself three goals.

With those came an army of new, and predominantly female, admirers.

On Wednesday night, the 19-year-old forward needed a Garda escort to make his way through the hoard of girls who turned up in Sixmilebridge for a charity match.

And last night, he was given headline billing on The Late Late Show, where he described the attention as flattering but “broadly embarrassing”.

Last Monday, after his mother, Mary, “naively” revealed his single-man status, the UCC student was beset with new fans.

However, he said after a week of gracing the country’s newspapers, he will be happy when the dust settles and he gets to savour how his teammates took apart Cork in the replay.

“When I look back in a couple of months, it is not going to be coming off the field in the Bridge [Sixmilebridge] on a Wednesday night that you will remember,” he said.

O’Donnell said the furore that has seem him likened to Justin Bieber and Harry Styles of One Direction was a “side show”.

However, he said the experience of playing in an All-Ireland Final, scoring 3-3 and winning the Man of the Match award had left him in a “dream”.

Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald said he had originally told O’Donnell that he would start from the bench and would “come on at some stage” so that he would not get too nervous.

He only told him he would lead the line two hours before throw in.