'It just kind of burst open,' recalled the 2013 All-Ireland final replay hat-trick hero. 'I think it must have got through to the artery. I don’t understand exactly how it happened.'
Shane O'Donnell wasn't listening to Brian Lohan as he rallied his Clare troops at half-time against Kilkenny.
READ MORE: Clare star Conor Cleary hails influence of schoolmate Shane O'Donnell on a Banner generationHe had suffered a deep finger injury 10 minutes earlier, when going up to catch a ball and getting a smack of a hurley on the back of it. They steri-stripped and wrapped the wound a few times. Coming off what not an option in O'Donnell's mind. “I was going to go out anyway," he said. "I had played the last 10 minutes of the first half with blood freely coming out and I could still play. So I was always going to go back out. But I would have preferred if I could have had a bit more control of it."
O'Donnell took the game to Kilkenny from the half-forward line, and that's where he will start against Cork in Sunday's All-Ireland final. Once a terroriser of full-back lines, it is the position he has evolved into over time. "I probably came close to retiring a couple of years ago because of that injury to my head. It gave me kind of a free shot at everything that came after that. So I feel no pressure, really. I would have always put a lot of pressure on myself before, and I do coming into the games. I become obsessed with getting the most out of myself but in a strange way, I don’t feel any pressure associated with that.
Clare GAA Cork GAA Kilkenny GAA Croke Park Brian Lohan
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