BRIAN MURPHY SAYS he never had any concerns about his shoulder surviving Cork’s dramatic All-Ireland hurling final draw against Clare.

Murphy missed three championship matches after breaking his collarbone during a club game for Bride Rovers at the end of June.

But after visiting a UK-based surgeon in a bid to speed up his recover, Murphy was passed fit and started at wing-back on Sunday.

“The shoulder is fine. No bother with it,” he said and admitted that the possibility of doing further damage never crossed his mind.

You can get a belt in any part of the body and be injured. You can get injured in training as fast as in a game. I didn’t even think about it.

It looked set to be the perfect comeback for Murphy when Pa Horgan floated over his 10th point of the game to give Cork the lead in stoppage time — the first time that the Rebels were in front in the entire match.

But corner-back Domhnall O’Donovan stepped out of the shadows to become Clare’s unlikely hero with a last-gasp leveller.

“Any time you draw there’s a lot of what ifs,” Murphy said. “If you did this you could have won; if you did that you could have lost.

“Fellas are in good enough aul’ form. We have another bite of the cherry, can’t complain.”

Horgan admitted that he thought his score had clinched a 31st All-Ireland hurling title for the Rebels before O’Donovan forced a replay on 28 September.

“Not at the time, no, but when we had the ball down in the corner with 72 minutes gone, I thought yes, it was after doing it for us.

“I thought then all we had to do was get the ball out of play and it was over. But they got another chance and they took it.”

Horgan had no quibbles about Brian Gavin’s time-keeping. The referee allowed Clare one last attack to equalise after the indicated time of at least two additional minutes had elapsed.

Sure look, we might claim he should have blown it but if you’re Clare you want another chance too. It works both ways. Maybe it’s something [the GAA] could look into.

The introduction of a stop/start game clock and a buzzer like the one used in ladies’ football might be one possible solution down the line.

“Right now we’d probably say yes,” Horgan added when asked about the idea, “but the wheel will turn. The shoe could be on the opposite foot on another day.

“Maybe it’s a good idea but nothing we can do about it now anyway. We have three weeks to get ready again.”

He added: “We’re not delighted to get a draw. We felt we should have taken it really but look, it’s probably the fair result in the end. We’ll do it all again soon.”

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