Clare forward Shane O Donnell.
By Cian O'Connell
Clare joint manager Gerry O'Connor has indicated that pacy forward Shane O'Donnell will be available for the 2019 Munster Hurling Championship.
This September O'Donnell will commence a Fullbright Scholarship at Harvard University and there was a fear that the talented attacker wouldn't be available for the Banner next year.
"Shane is one of these incredibly talented guys, academically, physically, mentally," O'Connor says. "But he doesn’t kick off in Boston in September and he’ll be back again in March.
"To be fair, he kept us in the loop through the whole process. He was as surprised as anybody, but Shane is one of these laid-back guys that just gets on with things like that.
"He’ll take it all in his stride. He’ll probably come back more refreshed than any player after spending the winter in Boston."
O'Connor believes that O'Donnell will hurl for Clare next summer, fitness permitting. "Absolutely," O'Connor responded. "Cian Dillon went travelling from September to March and he’s in our championship panel.
"These guys have banked a level of fitness and conditioning over the past number of years that they actually carry that. It’s not like back in my day where you wintered well and you had to get into the gym to get the pounds off.
Clare joint manager Gerry O Connor.
"These guys constantly keep their conditioning in check so that there is no real actual fall-back at all. It's a one-off, six to eight-month period."
Oisin O'Brien and Paul Flanagan are the only two Clare players unlikely to feature in the June 20 Pairc Ui Chaoimh Munster Championship tussle against Cork. "Oisin O’Brien is the only long-term knee injury guy at the minute," O'Connor revealed.
"Paul Flanagan and Oisin O’Brien are the only two candidates who won’t make it in terms of getting meaningful training done over the next two or three weeks.
"I think it’s too late from them now. Oisin has decided not to rehab the injury. It is a meniscus issue with his ligament. He is able to play club hurling but he would require eight weeks of rehab and a scope to actually sort him to train with us. So he’s decided to park that for the foreseeable future and concentrate on the club.
"Paul Flanagan has had an achilles tendon issue for the last six months. He was incredibly diligent at rehabbing it. Then he went back and probably pushed a little hard and pulled a hamstring.
"All the other guys have come back that were injured. Peter Duggan, Cathal Mc (McInerney), Shane Golden, Conor McGrath – all those guys had niggly injuries, but have resumed training now."
