Shane O'Donnell has revealed the full extent of his concussion hell as the injury ruled him out of Clare's Championship campaign in the summer.
The 2013 All-Ireland hero suffered the head injury in Clare training in the lead up to their final league clash with Kilkenny in June, an injury which kept him off the field for almost three months.
And in an honest interview, O'Donnell claims intense nausea and pressure in his head meant even sitting on a couch or watching the Banner on TV was unbearable in an 'exhausting' few weeks.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner as an ambassador for the ‘Creating Our Future’ campaign, O'Donnell opened up on how the ordeal started after he suffered a concussion in Clare training on a Thursday evening..
He said: “By the time the following Wednesday came, it was absolute car crash stuff. From that point on for about two weeks, I was about eight out of 10 on nausea for the entire time. Just sitting down, I could have got sick at any stage.”
“I had nine out of 10 symptoms just sitting on the couch,” he explained. “My primary symptoms for the first four weeks or so were nausea and pressure in my head. Then it was sensitivity to light and sound but the whole gambit was there.
"Some days you wake up and you feel Ok. You think you’re getting out of it and the next day you’re feeling worse than ever. It just psychologically saps every bit out of you. It’s absolutely exhausting.”
The 27-year-old was physically unable to even listen to match commentary as frustration over his symptoms and a lack of clear medical guidance as the injury changed his perspective.
“There was no way I could even watch the TV,” he said.
“Even being in the house could have caused me to get my heart-rate up, which could have brought on me feeling worse again. I had my headphones on a table listening to the match but not really listening. If the match was getting intense, I would turn the headphones off. Physically, I wasn’t able for any more than that.”
He added: "The frustration with going to a doctor is that they just don’t know. They tell you things like don’t look at the TV, or wait it out. The whole protocol process nearly drove me insane. The first step of the protocol is to wait until you have no symptoms. I was six weeks in and that was no help to me whatsoever.
“People’s personal experience can give you a totally different angle on things you’d never consider before. A good phrase I heard is even the most intelligent person in the world can’t write down a list of things that wouldn’t occur to them.
"If you haven’t experienced something and you don’t have any exposure to it, it’s not on your mind. This whole concussion has completely changed what’s at the front of my mind.
"While I was dealing with the real difficult part of the symptoms, I really felt that I was never going to play hurling again. I was resigned to that fact because I was thinking that I could never justify putting myself back in this position. It’s only when you’re coming out of it that your mindset changes.”
O'Donnell was medically cleared to return to play 10 weeks after suffering the injury, and gradually returned to the field with his club Eire Og in the Clare hurling championship.
However, O'Donnell has stepped away from his club's footballers and will sit out Clare's pre-season with a view to return to the fold before the 2022 Championship.
He stated: "“In 99% of my full health again, I’d be very sad to say that I played my last game with Clare. So I’m definitely not done with it. To be honest, I’m more excited than I have been in a few years.
"I’m really looking forward to the future with Clare. I really think we’re in a very good place.”
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
