CLARE HURLING STAR Shane O’Donnell says he came to have a greater appreciation for the stress that the county’s fans experience during his time out due to a concussion.

O’Donnell suffered the injury during a Clare training session in 2021 which ruled him out of that year’s championship, while also having a considerable impact on his day-to-day life.

He subsequently resumed hurling with his club in the Clare SHC where he sustained another blow to the head, forcing a delay in his return to the inter-county set-up until March 2022. His concussion also resulted in him taking unpaid leave from work. The ordeal inspired him to head up a motion to the Gaelic Player’s Associations’ Annual General Meeting.

The motion, which aims to rectify the ‘inadequacy of the current insurance in safeguarding inter-county players from financial loss,’ was passed unanimously.

“There’s been a certain level of from the general public that they’re just surprised that that’s not already the case that if someone gets injured, that, you know, that they wouldn’t be out of pocket,” O’Donnell explains.

“So I think there was a level of, of just maybe the general public didn’t understand where players stand when they go out on the pitch.

“It hasn’t got to the point of being voted on by, I think central council or by county delegates or anything like that.

“So that’s where I think we’ll expect maybe a bit more push back. But when it went through the GPA motion, it passed unanimously, which was brilliant to see and even just anecdotally from hearing stories from players or people that have kind of contacted me or even just people I’ve run into, it’s all been extremely positive, which is also great to hear. 

“But the general consensus, the feedback I’ve been getting has been really excellent, which is heartening.”

O’Donnell added that he is planning his inter-county future on a year-by-year basis, citing an interest to work abroad at some point alongside his girlfriend Niamh. He has taken a break from inter-county hurling in the past after the time he spent studying at Harvard in 2019. But his concussion struggles kept him on the sidelines for a longer spell, which exposed him to the difficult emotions that Clare fans face on match days.

“I really think that when I retire I’ll have to tie it in with working abroad that year because I found it very difficult towards the end of the year that I took out because of the concussion, going watching games.

“I found it extremely difficult. I did not realize, I did not appreciate the plight of the supporters for Clare until I actually stood in the crowd and watched a couple of our games and my God, it was just unbelievably stressful.

“So I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that the first year when I retire properly, but… might have to tie it in with kind of going abroad or something. But yeah, it is kind of a year by year thing at this stage.

“It [Harvard] did broaden the horizons but at the same time I was back in April that year, so I only missed the league. So watching the league was definitely like, you know, I felt like I wanted to be back there, but championship is just a different kind of experience.

“And that year the concussion was the only year I’ve had where I’ve kind of been disconnected from the team and watching championship games from the outside.”

Shane O’Donnell is the Gaelic Writers’ Association Hurling Personality of the Year, in association with EirGrid

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