All-Ireland final week injury put Shane O’Donnell through emotional wringer

TERRIBLE WEEK: Shane O'Donnell of Clare during the parade before All-Ireland SHC final against Cork. Photo by John Sheridan/Sportsfile

Shane O’Donnell has revealed that he suffered a hamstring tear on Tuesday of last week which severely jeopardised his All-Ireland final involvement.

Although the training ground tear fell into the “mild” 1A category for hamstring injuries, O’Donnell put his chances of final involvement at only “50%” when receiving his scan results a day after sustaining the desperately timed setback.

The 30-year-old said that if it had been any other game bar an All-Ireland final there would have been no point in trying to play and that his involvement from the off was predicated on surviving the pre-match warm-up.

At the end of what had been a “terrible week”, the hurler of the year frontrunner defied his hamstring to clip a pair of points and set up the goal that ensured Clare were not beyond resuscitation come half-time.

Shane O'Donnell of Clare stretches from cramp during the All-Ireland SHC final against Cork. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

“Thought I was out. Then maybe back in. All this going on, the emotion was just extraordinarily high during the week and then to get out there and just be able to experience that yesterday,” O’Donnell said at the winning team hotel on Monday morning.

“Just a 1A tear, the mildest tear you can get. Tuesday evening I thought I was 100% gone. Went and got an MRI scan on Wednesday lunch and then found out an hour later it was a 1A team and I had a 50% chance of playing, there or thereabouts, depending on how it healed.

“Then like that, just ah my god the emotion of thinking I was gone to then having a chance and still not knowing, and waking up every morning and being like… 

“If it wasn’t an All-Ireland final, there would have been no point (trying to play), but I made the decision a few days ago, regardless, if I survived the warm-up then I would play.” 

In the opening five minutes, he found himself chasing Shane Barrett. There’s Cork pace and then there's Shane Barrett. Not an advisable chase with a less than secure hamstring. O’Donnell bowed out of the footrace because to do otherwise would have seen him bow out of the decider.

“I couldn’t commit to the run because it could have went and it was too early in the game. I started calling over Adam (Hogan). It was maybe playing on my mind a small bit earlier in the game. Yeah, it was there, but there was no point where I was, yeah, I feel great. It was a terrible week.

“It was constantly there (throughout the match). I wouldn't say it held me back at all, but it was in the back of my mind thinking, each time I sprint for a ball it could be my last, which I was happy to go with and see what happened.” 

To the Clare medical team, O’Donnell owes so much.

“We have an unbelievable physio team and I just did what they told me to do. The first 48 hours totally nothing, let it settle, iced it for every hour for a solid two days.

“Within 48 hours it would start to heal a small bit because of where I was at. I had got the MRI back at this stage.

“They were happy just to start to load it a small bit, but pretty light, just some kind of bridges and long level holds, a little bit of rehab, and then I was alternating between hamstring exercise and frictioning it just to desensitise it.

“That went on for two or three days. Saturday morning I met up with the physio to go for another session. That was it and then between Saturday afternoon and the match it was just leave it alone and just hope it is where it needs to be.”