Emma Duffy

SÍOFRA O’SHEA WAS confident her knee would hold up.

The precedent of playing on an ACL injury had been set, not that it was much help.

Ciara O’Sullivan did it in the 2012 All-Ireland final, with Henry Shefflin also among those defying the odds.

Others, like Nicole Owens, had attempted it, but her knee buckled again in a matter of minutes.

“I remember watching that game and hearing about that,” O’Shea tells The 42.

“I was aware of people playing through it and had looked up a few things. But you don’t want to focus on it all the same, because there’s different results from it. It could go one way or the other.

“I didn’t have that much time as well, to build it up. Other players had longer periods of time where you can do work and build up the muscles around it, whereas I had two-and-a-half weeks until the final.”

The dreaded injury happened in training. The Sunday before the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo.

She didn’t think it was her ACL at the time, but heartbreaking confirmation arrived via MRI results the following morning. Take two. Just a year after coming back from the same injury.

It was the other knee this time. Yet another cruel blow for the 21-year-old Kerry captain.

But on this occasion, the reaction was different. Her knee wasn’t swollen or stiff, despite another fully ruptured ACL. She could walk around freely and had her full range of motion, unlike last time.

O'Shea during the 2023 All-Ireland final. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

The Kerry management team made contact with Santry Sports Clinic, and as Declan Quill told reporters after the All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin, they had a “medical wonder” on their hands.

There was no guarantee it would hold up, but O’Shea and co. felt it was worth the risk as “the best kept secret in Ireland” became a reality. 

“I was up to Santry a few times and did a few tests,” she recalls now. “I knew I had to go for surgery either way. It was just about testing it out, seeing how I got on myself. I played half a training game the week before.

With a bit of strapping, it held together for the time I was on. The adrenaline, I suppose, gets you through it as well. But I felt confident enough on it and confident that it wouldn’t go during the game.

Thankfully, the Southern Gaels forward didn’t sustain any further damage as a 42nd-minute substitute and she underwent successful surgery in mid-September.

“The recovery is going well. I’m four months in at the moment. I’ve been working as hard as I can. I haven’t missed a session that I’m meant to be doing yet. So a lot of hard work done, but a lot of hard work still to go.”

O’Shea, a fourth year PE and Maths teaching student at University of Limerick and a talented basketball player, can’t commend her family, friends and the Kerry set-up enough for their support.

She’s doing her gym work and running at home, but has attended every county session since the return. Herself and Fiadhna Tangney, who is rehabbing a different injury, are staying involved and keeping competitive through extra bike or ski sessions. “We’re pushing each other, trying to burn the most calories or get the best time!”

“I learned a lot,” O’Shea adds, referencing her first ACL injury. “Just tips that you pick up as you go through it and things that I was more aware of now at the start of the rehab.

“That’s probably helped me get back into the gym quicker, and when you’re in the gym, you build up quicker. I’ve done a lot of gym work over the last two years as well with the county team, so I probably went into the surgery stronger and that’s definitely helped on the other side of it. It’s going well so far.”

She will be watching on for the Lidl Ladies National Football League anyway, with “bragging rights for the start of the season” up for grabs against Dublin at Parnell Park on Saturday, 20 January.

Darragh Long and Declan Quill are at the helm once more and the core playing group is going again, along with some other additions, including coaching duo Mags Fitzgerald and PJ Reidy, as Geraldine O’Shea departs.

“It was a big bonus that our management team stayed on for another year,” O’Shea concludes.

“We’ve got some additions to the management team as well, so it’s great to have new voices in. We have new players in, maybe 10 or 11 this year, some coming up from minor and some coming back who have played with Kerry before. They’ve been great and they’re pushing hard during pre-season.

“We’re not losing too many players. We have the same main bunch and it’s exciting to see where we could go. I think it’s about time we got over the line because losing back-to-back All-Ireland finals isn’t great.”

The prospect of third time lucky will undoubtedly drive O’Shea on the comeback trail.