Reigning Hurler of the Year Shane O’Donnell has confirmed that he will be available for Clare again in 2026 before leaving not just the squad but the country behind.
The 31-year-old attacker was on the brink of retirement last winter, partly because of a serious shoulder injury which required surgery but also because of his long-held desire to work abroad.
In the end, he stuck around, resolved to battle on with MacCarthy Cup holders Clare and somehow made it back to compete in the Championship.
Despite then helping his club Eire Og to a first Clare SHC title in 35 years, he was still expected to pull the shutters down on his inter-county career.
Speaking at the launch of the AIB club championships, O’Donnell had good news and bad news on that front, confirming that he’ll be back with Brian Lohan’s Banner squad for 2026 but that it will be his last season.
O’Donnell, a PhD graduate in microbiology and former Harvard University scholarship student, plans to emigrate with his partner at the end of next year.
Shane O’Donnell of Eire Og lifts the Canon Hamilton Cup. Pic: Natasha Barton, Inpho
“The plan is to go to Australia, that’s kind of the plan,” said O’Donnell. “I think initially the rationale was to go to America and that would have been the most sensible from a career perspective, for both myself and my girlfriend, but I think the (political) situation in America at the moment has probably taken the veneer off that a small bit and is just not something I maybe want to dive straight into.
“The other side of it was just to be able to move abroad and to live abroad and to experience that kind of lifestyle, so Australia is definitely something that we’d be really interested in. Yeah, that’s the idea, that this time next year, very roughly, is when we’d be looking to go.”
Three-time All-Star O’Donnell defied medical expectation, and typical recovery timeframes, by making it back for last summer’s championship after the shoulder operation.
But not even the powerful forward could inspire a successful campaign as Clare won just a single championship match and slumped to a bottom two finish in Munster.
Looking back now, O’Donnell acknowledged that he probably did rush back too soon – even though he says he would do it all over again – and he is facing another winter trying to get on top of medical issues.
Asked if his current problems are linked to the shoulder injury, O’Donnell nodded.
“Kind of, I’m having an issue with the back of my shoulder blade, which is kind of more causing downstream issues in my arm,” he said. “Then both of my knees have issues, one has cartilage damage and the other has something yet to be discovered. I need to get some scans on it.
“Then I have athletic groin pain, or osteitis pubis, which is just like a training load issue. So there’s a number of things. I’ve cleared a number of them before. It’s just about going through the process and hopefully being able to manage them together.”
O’Donnell said he didn’t fancy ending his inter-county career on the low note of last summer’s difficulties.
“Definitely the intention was to wrap up this year,” he said. “There was a number of us in the same boat, that we had explicitly said to each other that this year was going to be the last year. I think when it came to that abstract concept of retirement turning into a very concrete actual retirement, it became hard, especially given the year we had.
“Then my personal circumstances, with the timeline that we’d expected to move abroad by now, has just been pushed a little bit back to maybe the latter end of next year, so it kind of just means I’m in a position that I will be around for summer basically.”
O’Donnell said he found it difficult watching Clare earlier this year when injured.
“Missing time on the pitch and having to watch games is really challenging and that’s why, when I do retire, I’m looking to move abroad at the same time to have that physical disconnect of being able to say, ‘Well, I’m not actually able to get on to the pitch’.”