‘Tension in final left me wrecked’

In the instant his finger shattered, Michael Rice knew.

“I could see through to what I thought was the bone, though I still don’t know whether it was or it wasn’t.

“Then you suddenly get stupid and think that the doctor might stitch it up and you’ll get back out there. Then he does a few tests and you realise ‘that isn’t moving great’.

“I was still kind of stupid when I got to James’ Hospital (Dublin) and thinking ‘right, it’s a fracture, I’ll be back in three weeks’. But then I found out the next day how bad it was when they showed me the scans and that put hurling in the All-Ireland final out of my head completely.”

Rice’s right index finger was broken into seven bone fragments which required screws by that blow in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Tipperary. It ended his season and naturally, he still has what-ifs on his mind.

“The left hand was well protected… I was wearing the Mycro glove there and if I was wearing it on the right hand it might have helped, I don’t know.”

Is it a career-threatening injury?

“I didn’t ask that question and I was afraid to ask that question, to be honest. I don’t know how long it will be. I’m hoping to be back, obviously this year is gone with the club and everything. I’m just going to take it week-by-week and see how I go.”

Thanking everyone in St James’ Hospital for their treatment, and the vast amount of messages of support – “from inside Kilkenny and outside” — Rice adds: “I was upset that I ended up with a season-ending injury. The way it happened, there was a ball up the line, I was going for it and I ended up with a slap on the finger that put me out for the rest of the year. I can’t second guess what the opposition player was trying to do.”

With his finger too unstable even to act as a hurley-carrier, Rice says the tension of the drawn final against Galway left him “wrecked”.

“I’m the hurler on the ditch. It’s the place to be because I would have probably made 100 mistakes out there, but when you’re looking on you’re thinking ‘get that ball, get that ball’.

“But you realise that it’s absolutely pure fury for 70 minutes and there’s no let-up. You can’t even call them silly mistakes because everyone is under so much pressure.”

Rice paid tribute to his teammates for their second-half improvement: “Probably the most impressive thing was a lad could be having a bad day and they turned it around – that’s what I was impressed with most.

“Lads came out and had storming second halves having not had a brilliant first-half. Probably no-one from Kilkenny had a brilliant first-half that day, but they stuck at it and it was great to see.”

Did he expect Henry Shefflin to go for a goal from his late penalty?

“No. I agreed with Henry. I thought ‘point’ was the way to go and I was happy enough with what he did.” Has that decision been over-analysed?

“Yeah, it wasn’t even an issue in my mind,” says Rice. “I was surprised that anyone even discussed it afterwards. I was thinking ‘two minutes left’, and I know it ended up being closer to five, and the game was so tight I thought he was right to do what he did. I was surprised there was any talk about it afterwards.”

Dismissing the reported comments of Joe Canning that Henry Shefflin might be unsportsmanlike in questioning referee Barry Kelly (“Absolutely not — I watched him for years, played with and against him for years and that’s not a word I would use,”), Rice pointed out the pitfalls of getting involved with officials.

“You can say ‘what was that for ref?’ because you might genuinely not understand what has happened there, but I don’t think there was any big incidents like that. There were incidents in the match where there were other players who might have said something to the referee asking why he gave that free. So to single out one player like that was strange.

“Do I talk to refs? Not particularly. Maybe the refs might say otherwise, but I don’t think I do, anyway. If you’re standing there talking to the ref your man would be gone so there’s probably not enough time.”