Erika O’Shea laughed – not the reaction you would expect from someone who had no vision in her left eye.
The former All Star footballer from Cork, in the midst of her first season in Australia playing in the AFLW for the North Melbourne Kangaroos, didn’t realise the seriousness of the injury, how a debut campaign that saw her play in all 10 rounds had just been cruelly cut short.
Lining out against Richmond on October 30th, O’Shea was involved in a shuddering collision when chasing back in defence. No one was really sure who hit what, but the North Melbourne medical staff saw O’Shea in a heap. They couldn’t take her off the pitch fast enough once the damage became clear.
“I’m not even sure what happened,” admits O’Shea, nearly three weeks on from the incident. “All the management team tried to figure it out as well. I ran back towards goal because there was a girl just after marking the ball but she dropped it, so I was trying to get back and stop the goal.
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“Either her elbow or the ball, but I think it was her elbow, just smacked me straight in the eye. I didn’t know where I was for the first 10, 20 seconds. I couldn’t see out of my left eye, I thought it was just swollen.
“The physios ran on, I kept saying to them ‘I’m fine, I just got hit in the face, I can’t see out of my eye but I’m fine, just give me two seconds’. They dragged me off the pitch and I was laughing, calling them dramatic.
“It went downhilll from there, the doctor took one look at me and could see the eye filling with blood in the iris part. I was rushed to hospital.”
O’Shea was diagnosed with extreme hyphema, a pooling of blood inside the anterior chamber of the left eye which was blocking her vision completely.
“I was crying asking if I would ever see again. The club have been amazing in my recovery; if they didn’t take me off the pitch that day I would have done permanent damage and lost vision, they put me first. If it was my way I would have played on . . . it made me realise I need to cop on if I’m not okay.
“They [hospital doctors] had these machines in me looking at the eye, they realised they had to drain the blood. I had to stay in bed for three days straight and I wasn’t allowed to get up unless I was going to the bathroom.
“They put pillows behind me and I was sleeping facing straight ahead. I couldn’t move for those three days, luckily they drained all the blood but I couldn’t see still. That was the scariest part.
“I was crying so much because I couldn’t think of anything worse, what team is going to want a one-eyed player?”
Thankfully, the bizarre sleeping method worked – the blood drained and O’Shea’s vision eventually returned.
“A week passed and they told me I didn’t have to rest but I still had no vision in my left eye. I was in the hospital every few days for check-ups. A few days ago the vision started getting blurry and I could start making out colours. Three days passed and I started being able to make out a bit more, then full vision came back.”
Despite the improvement, O’Shea isn’t out of the woods yet. A check-up with a specialist this week revealed the pressure in her eye has returned to a high level while there is still risk of further complications.
O’Shea’s injury may be a rare one, but the challenges of being ruled out of action so far from home are all too familiar to Irish GAA players who journey out to Australia. However, aged just 20, the former Cork star has to overcome this challenge younger than most.
“The days are long, you’re not doing what you normally do and what you came to Australia to do. Why am I in Australia if I can’t do anything?
“I was talking to the Irish girls out here and telling them I know now why people don’t come over so young. I was 19, it’s the most amazing experience but being so far away from home so young is hard, especially when everything is taken away from you so fast.
“The Irish girls were so good to me out here, like Clara Fitzpatrick and Grace Kelly, they all called to me, brought sweets and small things.”
Fortunately for O’Shea, a surprise visit from her mother and sister helped her cope with the lack of purpose. Her mother didn’t actually realise how bad her injury was until they met in person; in a bid to protect family who were so far away in Cork, O’Shea never disclosed the full details.
“I rang my sister because I was really struggling last week, thinking my sports career was over. I was avoiding her [sister’s] calls because I didn’t want her to worry but I didn’t want to lie to her on the phone, text is so much easier.
“I broke down to her and told her what happened. Straight away she booked a flight that night. She never told me. My mam came out with her but didn’t realise how bad it was, she thought I could see and I told my sister to keep it that way.
“My mam said when she saw me I was the most broken little girl, I wasn’t coping at all.”
For all the trauma, both emotional and physical, she has endured, O’Shea is still targeting a return whenever she is medically cleared.
“I know this is what I want to do for the next 10 years or however long I’m able to play. This won’t stop me. I’m definitely coming back next year, I’ve signed [for] two years. I didn’t expect to play as much as I did and was really happy with how the season went.
“It definitely matured me in ways I didn’t expect but I am stronger, I’m grateful for the experience. It’s okay not to be okay. I wouldn’t be one to say I’m struggling but I learned if I am not in a good place it’s okay to say it, there are people to help you.”
