Answers from the man himself.
Clare hurler and reigning Player of the Year, Shane O’Donnell, has provided an update on his injury situation.
We initially reported back in February that he would miss the 2025 season after having shoulder surgery.
However, more recent reports claimed that he was back in non-contact training and that it was unclear whether he had even had the surgery.
Speaking with SportsJOE, O’Donnell cleared up the vagueness of the latter report, confirming that he has not been training and that he did indeed have surgery.
He also provided hope for Clare supporters on making it back for the championship at some point.
On his recovery, he said: “It’s going well, it’s coming along well.
“I’m not obviously in contention for any games that are coming soon, but I’ve got back to the point where I’m able to live my life and move my shoulder in a normal way and all that, so I’m taking those wins as they come.
“Like it’s tough coming into a first round of the championship now against Cork and essentially being a spectator, but I have every confidence that the lads are able to do it.”
On the timeline of when he could be back, he added: “Yeah, it does depend.
“Like I’ll be honest, I don’t know. And if I did know, I’m not sure if I’d be able to give you a date either, but I’ll know more in the next week.
“Essentially where I’m at, I’m kind of getting into that business end of it now where I’ll know in the next week or two what exactly the date it’s going to land on.
“But it kind of does pendulum swing between being like, I have no hope here and you know things are moving quite well, but the surgery that I got initially the surgeon told me essentially it’s a six-month recovery and that brings me way past the championship, full stop, so.”
