Back from the brink, O’Donnell takes nothing for granted

So what happened Shane O’Donnell? It’s all of nine years now since, as a teenager, he was sprung for the 2013 All-Ireland replay and provided the explosives as Clare demolished Cork. Three goals. Three points.

On Monday he is receiving the PwC GPA Player of the Month award for his part in the county’s exceptional hurling championship to date. Having lost an elemental Munster final to Limerick in extra-time, Clare face Wexford in Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final.

For the most part, O’Donnell has been hurling away but other aspects of life have cut across that apparently straightforward pursuit. For one, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard in 2019 to work on his doctorate in microbiology.

There was an invitation to return to Boston and he acknowledges that had he gone back, offers to work in the US, which would effectively have ended his intercounty hurling career, would probably have arisen. But he decided against that path. Had hurling been an influence?

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“It was a significant part I would say but there was a number of other factors, like, my girlfriend was going to be based in Dublin for kind of a few years, and still will be for a couple more years so that was definitely a big part of it as well. I would say it’s hard to put a percentage on it but it was probably 50-50 between those two things.”

He now works with a London-based start-up Eagle Genomics.

“They’re building a platform that helps analyse and interpret science-generated big data. I always was very interested in science kind of things but also wanted to get into the business aspect of science a small bit.”

A more sinister disruption intruded into his life a year ago. A routine training session in Ennis and he suffered what appeared a routine bang on the head but the after-effects were terrifying; concussion symptoms that threatened to undermine his whole life, nausea, pressure in his head and sensitivity to light and sound.

He must have been worried that his hurling career was over.

“Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn’t even say worried to be honest. There was a point that I had fully accepted I wasn’t going to play again and had fully accepted that. It [hurling] was not something I was too worried about at the time. I was worried about being able to function correctly, to process normal thoughts, things like that.

“Hurling was not on my radar at all. Basically at the time I couldn’t ever justify putting myself in a position that I could end up in that condition again so that was kind of my mindset at the time.”

So he must now, by order of cliché, feel grateful for the sheer normality of his life.

“Yeah, definitely, and it is a cliché but it does put it into perspective. I think I made a remark there that the last week has been difficult, you know, we were bitterly disappointed with the result but in the context of where I was 12 months ago, it’s not a drop in the ocean compared to that. I don’t know if the lads would appreciate me saying it but I’d lose 10 Munster finals in a row rather than be where I was 12 months ago.”

He was unable to watch last year’s match with Wexford, which Clare won, and ended up listening to it on the radio. This weekend, he’ll be in the middle of the action in Thurles.

O’Donnell’s comeback was green-lighted by specialists and he undertook it carefully, starting with the club Éire Óg last year. His return to Brian Lohan’s county panel had been long anticipated and as soon as the player returned, his impact was immediate.

Together with Peter Duggan, who had been abroad, the pair added enormously to Clare’s rising status, now assessed by most onlookers to be number two to three-in-a-row chasing Limerick.

Duggan, along with corner back Rory Hayes, has been found to have a case to answer after incidents in the Munster final. Both face one-match suspensions. It is one issue O’Donnell has no interest in pursuing in public beyond a vague statement that no decision had been made on whether to bring the proposed bans to a hearing.

“I’m just not really going to get involved in it, to be honest.”

His pace and increased physicality have been great assets to the team. The role as a lone predator up front has given way to a more active, involved deployment on the wing.

The line-ball award that set up Tony Kelly for his miraculous sideline cut in Thurles, which brought Limerick to extra time, was made by O’Donnell and his rattling challenge on Barry Nash.

Saturday is a stern challenge for Clare, coming within a fortnight of the draining Munster final and especially if two of their best players are suspended. But for O’Donnell, challenge is a relative concept.