SHANE O’DONNELL PLAYED with a finger that was “burst open” for the majority of Clare’s All-Ireland semi-final success over Kilkenny.
The back-to-back All-Star revealed the extent of the hand injury was such that the bleeding couldn’t be stemmed throughout the second half at Croke Park.
But O’Donnell simply wouldn’t countenance departing the field until a first All-Ireland final appearance in 11 years was secured.
“I didn’t protect my hand going up to catch a ball and I basically got a hurley to the back of it. And it just kind of burst open. I think it must have got through to the artery,” he said.
“That was it. I don’t understand exactly how it happened. Obviously, the ball kind of hit the front and the hurley at the back kind of pinched it. It must have just caused enough pressure to cause a lot of damage.
“It’s funny. Everyone was talking about Brian (Lohan) must have said something great at half-time. I don’t think I heard anything Brian said with three medics around my finger trying to stop the blood coming out.
“I was always going to go back out. But I would have preferred if I could have had a bit more control of it.
“They steri-stripped it a few times, then wrapped it a few times. But like I went out and the first ball was a puck-out. I caught it and my hand was just completely red. I was just blood everywhere.
“There’s not much you can do at the same time. Fifteen or 20 minutes into the second half, I ended up going for a throw ball with Cian Kenny. He said to Liam Gordon, the ref, ‘He has to go off.’
“And Gordon was like, ‘He can’t do anything about it. It keeps bleeding.’ And I was like, ‘That’s pretty accurate.’ There was nothing I could do, basically.”
O’Donnell concedes his career has taken something of a “strange trajectory” since the hat-trick that lifted Clare to All-Ireland glory in 2013.
His road back to hurling’s showpiece event has been a long one. He emphasises how he teetered on the brink of retiring in 2021 due to the ill effects of a concussion, which rendered him unable to return to work for six weeks.
“With the strange trajectory of my career, maybe you do think you’re going to be up there in semi-finals or finals competing every year.
“Obviously, it hasn’t been the case. It’s my first time back there. If we win, it will be one that I can categorically say I will enjoy a lot more than I did back in 2013.
“We won minors and U21s and then senior and it was a huge deal but it was also just another year back then. Now, it’s different when it’s 10 years passed and you’re still playing.
“Also, I was this close to deciding not go back a couple of years ago. It was front and centre of my mind. I can’t believe my career has gone from I win it and then I have to retire without getting that opportunity again. So that crossed my mind.
“It would certainly be a nice way to… I won’t say bookend, because I don’t plan on retiring this year, but it would be a nice way to stagger… Winning one at the start of your career and then one towards the end.”
He feels like everything after 2021 is a “free shot”. He might not have gotten these chances at all. The obsession to maximise his performance remains but the pressure is removed. It has shown as he picked up Hurler of the Month awards in both April and June.
As part of that deep-thinking approach, he plays with a heavier homemade hurley, custom-built by his father, which provides extra distance in his strike in a trade-off against close control.
As for 2013, he won’t be reflecting too much on the lessons of that replayed final this week. His role has changed, his preparation is different, his physicality has transformed, his mindset and skillset have developed, and hurling has evolved.
It’s the same two counties that produced those high-scoring contests and O’Donnell reckons the Banner and Rebels have comparable game plans.
“They certainly did a few things we’ve been trying to do. Yeah, in some ways we’re relatively similar.
“We do rely on a lot of pace in the forwards. Limerick are a very structured team in defence. There are opportunities there if you can get them moving.
“That’s a large part of what Cork got joy out of. And they got joy out of it in Páirc Uí Chaoimh as well earlier in the year.
“We had seen that. They had success with that, more than we did in the Munster final for a couple of reasons that I’m not going to get into. But yeah, they did approach it in a similar way.”