Positive thinking paying off as Tommy O’Donnell revels in return
But now he is back in action more than a month earlier than expected, Tommy O’Donnell finds himself capable of looking philosophically on the posterior hip dislocation that threatened to end his rugby career at the age of 26.
“Say, I finished rugby and was left with a bad hip — there’s a lot worse things in life, so I was very happy to get back playing, and that’s why it was easy to deal with it mentally,” said the Tipperary man yesterday, happy that he suffered no ill-effects from his 20-minute appearance for Munster against Leinster on Sunday.
“The relief is going to be huge when you’re potentially facing a career-ending injury. So it’s very easy to say ‘okay, I missed out on the World Cup, but I’m still going to be able to play rugby. I’m still going to be able to walk around.’”
O’Donnell was enjoying an outstanding performance for Ireland against Wales in Cardiff last August, and establishing himself as a certainty in Joe Schmidt’s World Cup squad when disaster struck 10 minutes from the end.
“I landed on my knee and two big Welsh lads came down on me,” he explained. “I’m probably blessed it didn’t break. It was a posterior hip dislocation. It came down, around, and out the back. Straightaway, I knew it was serious — 100%. When you have something sticking out the back of your hip and you can’t move one leg from the other, you know it’s pretty serious.”
Oxygen was used for the pain, along with a variety of medicinal products which Tommy knew little about at the time, but with which he has since become familiar. “From a doctor’s point of view, they’re trying to establish blood supply, nerves and to get it back in,” he recalls.
“Usually with a posterior dislocation there’s a break, so it should just slide in, but they gave it one or two tugs and realised the acetabulum is still intact, so we’re going to have to take him to anaesthetic and put it back in. They gave me plenty of medications so I was in la la land when I came back. But it’s amazing to go from all that pain because as soon as I came around from the anaesthetic, I could actually move, I knew it wasn’t that bad, there was no break and that was the positive.”
O’Donnell’s perspective improved still further as his recuperation went far better than the earliest prognosis had suggested.
“Thanks to the staff; Shane McAleer, Dave Hanley, PJ Wilson, who spent a whole lot of one-on-one hours with me.”
And then in December came the signing of a new contract with Munster that further boosted his morale.
“It’s been my run of bad luck that I’ve been injured when negotiating contracts. But it was a vote of confidence for me in Munster and for Munster in me, to get it done. I’m very happy to have it renewed and with the deal we came to and I’m looking forward to the three years.”
While O’Donnell’s injury, coupled with Peter O’Mahony’s, left Munster short of two high quality back-row forwards, he looks beyond this factor to explain the side’s current dismal run.
“You’re not going to play badly just because of one player,” he insists. “We have to focus on the basics. We’re making a couple of mistakes, handling errors, and we’re not capitalising on some of the line breaks and pressure we’re exerting on teams. We need quicker rucks, a few better ball carries, and all of a sudden, those gaps will start appearing and the wins will come back.”
His next assignment is Saturday’s clash with Ulster at Kingspan Park, but he plays down the prospect of inclusion in Joe Schmidt’s extended Irish squad due to be announced this week.
“In my head, I’m focusing on returning to play. I’ve only played 20 minutes, so I haven’t even really thought about Irish camp.
“I’ve not had a huge amount of contact with Joe. I met him here one day in UL and he was delighted to hear things were going well. I probably shouldn’t have an involvement, I need to play games, I need to prove myself again.”
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