Paul Schutte captured his fourth Dublin SHC medal on Sunday - but would have been watching from the stand if he’d listened to the medics.
The former Dublin defender and 2018 All-Ireland winning Cuala captain was advised to retire after that club triumph due to a serious hamstring injury.
Schutte ripped the muscle off the bone during the 2017 Leinster club final and has only played a handful of matches since.
He can’t take a full part in training either but has somehow made himself available for the big games and played all of Sunday’s county final win over St Brigid’s.
The 30-year-old’s achievement was all the more impressive as he suffered a slight strain in the quarter-final win over Kilmacud Crokes.
Schutte said of his original injury: “It was torn off the bone. When I went to Santry Clinic, your man told me to retire. I didn’t really like his answer! So I went over to London, got a second opinion and he did an operation. He just said, ‘Tip away’. The guy over there looks after the soccer players, the Premier League and rugby lads and he was like, ‘We’ll hopefully get you back’.”
The centre-back admitted it hasn’t been a total recovery as he’s restricted to a limited training and playing schedule.
He said: “The hamstring first went in the (2017) Leinster final, I didn’t play the All-Ireland semi-final after that and then played a game and a half in the finals against Na Piarsaigh. I’d say I’ve basically played about five games in the space of two, three years.
“I played the league final against ‘Boden this year and I’ve probably played two or three games since then. I’m just trying to get as much game time as I can really. I maybe train once before a game and play the matches, that’s about it.
“I was blowing hard there against Brigid’s. But at half-back, if you’re clever with your runs you can get away with it. It’s not like you’re playing corner-forward or corner-back where you’re doing a lot of sharp running.
“It’s fine, it’s just moreso managing the training load. I can’t train twice a week, three times a week.”
Schutte lined out for Dublin when they won the 2013 Leinster title and crowned his career by captaining his club to that All-Ireland win in 2018.
Nobody would have blamed him for packing his hurl away but he still had a milestone to reach.
Schutte explained: “When I started out, I had a goal that my Dad and uncles won three (Dublin) championships so I wanted to win four. Now we’ve got four so I’ll have another decision to make at Christmas.”
Cuala could be without dual superstar Con O’Callaghan for Sunday week’s Leinster club quarter-final clash with Carlow’s St Mullins.
The Footballer of the Year nominee was taken off after being struck by the boot of Brigid’s and Dublin goalkeeper Alan Nolan while in the process of scoring an early goal.
Schutte said: “It was a disappointing enough tackle now, to be honest. I saw it. I saw there was one similar to it last year and it’s a dangerous enough tackle to be doing. I don’t know what else to be saying, it was a bad tackle.”
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