Kerry's Aishling O'Connell on bouncing back from injury and making the most of Croke Park days

DRIVE: Aishling O'Connell of Kerry is tackled by Olivia Divilly of Galway at Croke Park in the All-Ireland final two years ago. Picture: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Dealing with the disappointment of losing last year’s All-Ireland semi-final to Meath wasn’t the only thing that led to some dark days for Aishling O’Connell last winter.

The long-serving Kerry defender also had to go through the frustration of long-term injury.

Picking up a knee injury in that defeat to the Royals, which saw the Kingdom relinquish the Brendan Martin Cup, the Scartaglin stalwart missed the entire club season, and was ruled out of action for over eight months.

At 29 years of age, and wearing the senior green and gold jersey since she was 18, this was the first serious injury of O’Connell’s career. Needing to show character, she was thrilled to finally make her comeback in late March this year, in the last game of the league against Kildare.

“I picked up a knee injury towards the end of last season, a kind of meniscus, then just wear and tear. I was hoping it would go away itself, but then I got a second opinion in Santry, and I ended up getting a small surgery, so that just delayed me coming back,” she said.

“It was more precautionary really to make sure that I lasted the year, and to get enough strength and conditioning work in before coming back playing. It was great to get back then and finally play a game in the league.

Hard yards

“I hadn’t played since the semi-final against Meath. I didn’t play any club after that. My first game back was against Kildare in the last round of the league. It was a long time out, and probably my first ever sort of injury, so that was difficult.

“Wayne (Murphy), our strength and conditioning coach, does a lot of knee rehabilitation, outside of his work with ourselves, so I couldn’t have asked for a better strength and conditioning coach to have, to guide my way back.

“Everything he did was excellent. I just trusted what he said, and it’s stood to me this far. Hopefully I can get another game out of it anyway.

It was definitely hard. Any injury can be very lonely when you’re doing your rehab alone. 

"I would have done a lot of running and a lot of gym work in Cordal in the winter, and then try and link in with the girls in training.

“I also had a good support system at home. They were very helpful and understanding when my moods mightn’t have been the best. That helped too.” 

Since losing their Munster championship opener to Waterford, Mark Bourke’s side are on a seven-game winning streak heading into Sunday’s All-Ireland decider against Galway at Croke Park. O’Connell feels, despite that great run, that there is more in the collective Kerry tank.

“To be honest, I didn’t even know that (seven wins in a row). We were just taking it game by game. We’re not putting in complete performances in every game. I think if we could replicate the first 15 minutes of that Dublin game for 60 minutes, we would be delighted, but that’s not realistic.

“We would have analysed the last 45 minutes of that to see where we can improve. Likewise, Galway are on probably a bigger winning streak than ourselves, so we know that their confidence is going to be very high.

“They’ve a good range of scorers. They’ve even more All-Ireland medals with the Kilkerrin-Clonberne girls. I don’t think all the Noones were playing back in 2024, and Katie Slevin wasn’t playing either. Their confidence is up, and they’re going well.

“We definitely have to play better than we played against Dublin. In the Dublin game, we would have had a lot of unforced turnovers, and you can’t be doing that in a final if you want to get over the line. Trying to control what we can control is the main thing.” 

Riding the wave

While O’Connell is preparing for her fourth final in five years, the half-back realises that such a consistent run won’t last forever. Kerry lifted the title two years ago, but they are eager to win a second crown before the tide goes out.

“We don’t know if we’ll be playing in 2027, or who we’ll have, or management or anything. 

The likes of teams that got knocked out this year, Armagh and Dublin in the semi-finals, you’ve the Waterfords of this world, they’re only going to get hungrier.

“We’ve been in four finals over the last five years, but this is my 12th season, and I had a lot of years not in finals, just making relegation games, and getting hammered in quarter-finals. It’s great to get back there.

Aishling O'Connell leads the celebrations after defeating Cork in 2024. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

“I do love it. It’s great craic, and we’re all great friends. That helps and, if I wasn’t enjoying it, I wouldn’t be doing it. At the start of the year, I don’t really have to think too hard about whether I’ll go back or not. I still like to think that I’m still a bit young, so I’m going to play while I can.”