Rampaging return delights O’Neill

There were only 538 spectators in Páirc Uí Rinn to witness a McGrath Cup clash on a cold January afternoon yet the low-key setting could not detract from Colm O’Neill’s delight at returning to the inter-county game last Sunday.

In a GAA year that was defined by the cruciate curse that claimed a bunch of high-profile stars as victims, O’Neill’s tale of woe in 2011 stood out. On March 20 last he was left crumpled on the Pearse Stadium turf clutching his right knee, just 14 minutes into Cork’s Division 1 league tie with Galway.

Having previously torn his cruciate ligament in a championship game with his club Ballyclough in April 2008, he thought the worst. Eleven days later, O’Neill’s fears were realised as the news was broken to him at the Whitfield Clinic in Waterford that he was facing a long spell on the sidelines for the second time in four years.