All-Ireland champions Clare have sustained a significant setback with news that Shane O’Donnell will not be available for the rest of the season. The reigning Hurler of the Year and All Star full forward has had to undergo shoulder surgery and is not expected back in action until the end of the year.
“It’s very unfortunate for Shane himself and the team as well,” said manager Brian Lohan, confirming the situation. “We looked at every option with Shane but the medical advice was that surgery was 100 per cent necessary, so we wish him well and a full recovery.”
O’Donnell’s absence since the season began hadn’t been noticed because the player had settled into a routine of stepping back from league involvement, only making his return in last year’s final against Kilkenny.
The practice began in 2022 when he was still in recovery from a serious bout of concussion. Lohan allowed him the space to determine his comeback, which he delayed until the start of that year’s championship.
The benefits of this delayed return to action could be seen in championship, as O’Donnell, who is 31 this year, gained All Star recognition in each of the past three years, culminating in his HOTY award in 2024.
Speaking about the concussion at the end of last year, he detailed the imperative to return and to reclaim his hurling career.
“At the time, it wasn’t a moment of being ‘I can still win Player of the Year; I have to go back; I can still win an All-Ireland’. It was purely I needed to go back for my own physical wellbeing and health. I needed to go back – to know I wasn’t afraid of hurling or being on the pitch for the rest of my life.
“That was the context for the decision to go back. It wasn’t any grander than that, it was a really narrow scope. I need to play hurling again or I will never be what I was before or I will always be marred by this event. The scope was quite narrow for making that decision to go back.
“When I went back and Brian was in charge and he gave me the time, which was a huge part of it. If he had forced me to make a decision early in the year, I would’ve just said no, I was too afraid at the time. He gave me that room to make that decision myself.
“The moment I went back, after the first week, I knew I made the right decision.”
In an end-of-year interview last December, Lohan told this newspaper that O’Donnell had an uncanny ability to reacclimatise after his league breaks.
“He’s come in and everyone else has been training for the full year but he’d be pinging the ball around as if he’s been training every day for the previous three months. He has exceptional ability.”
O’Donnell nearly didn’t make last year’s final, having sustained a hamstring injury in training on the previous Tuesday. It turned out to be treatable and his contribution to the first-half recovery against Cork was immense. He made the first goal for Aidan McCarthy and added two points in quick succession.
Speaking last May about the benefits of resting for the league, O’Donnell said that he believed the routine facilitated his championship performance.
“I spend the off-season staying in touch, doing gym and that kind of work and when it gets close to this March deadline, I come back into training. I have maybe three or four weeks of running sessions to prepare for that and then in early March, I fit back into the panel training.
“You’d be surprised how quickly it comes around. From the hurling stuff, it’s in the bank. Anyone who has played intercounty for eight or 10 years could take a break and take it back up in a week or two.
“I find it works extremely well for me. Whether it’s physical energy coming back in, I don’t think that’s the case. It’s more a psychological edge – if that’s the right word: I can bring a lot of energy back in because I haven’t been training for a number of months and I think that does lend itself to me being able to perform come championship.”
There had been speculation that 2024 might be O’Donnell’s last year, as he had expressed an interest in working abroad – in the US where he pursued doctoral studies at Harvard – but after last July’s All-Ireland, he indicated that he would be on board for 2025.
Clare are under pressure in this year’s league, having lost their first three matches to Kilkenny, Galway and Wexford. Lohan’s first-choice team has been slow to return in the aftermath of injuries and this Sunday they make the short trip to the TUS Gaelic Grounds for the latest instalment of the intense, neighbouring rivalry with Limerick.
