Shane O'Donnell calls for greater policing of head-high collisions after 'scary' David Reidy incident

SHANE O’DONNELL SAYS dangerous head-high collisions, like the one that concussed his Clare colleague David Reidy, are a big problem in the game and need greater policing.

Former Hurler of the Year O’Donnell, who confirmed he’ll retire whenever Clare’s season ends, possibly at Croke Park this Sunday, said Reidy, Mark Rodgers and himself were all caught with similar tackles this season alone.

O’Donnell, who suffered a severe concussion in 2021, escaped injury this time but said Rogers, while available for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Limerick, is still dealing with symptoms from his episode.

As for Reidy, O’Donnell was one of the first on the scene after the Clare forward was knocked out by a heavy hit from Dublin’s Brendan Kenny in their All-Ireland quarter-final tie.

Speaking at the launch of new Irish sports nutrition brand Cróga, which has been developed by the GAA/GPA and Nuvion Nutrition team, O’Donnell said he was initially deeply concerned.

“He got hit and he went straight into that defence response, where your arms come up, and you just know that he’s been knocked out straight away,” said O’Donnell. “It was scary enough. He just wasn’t moving. He was fully knocked out. Looking back on it, it maybe wasn’t as concerning, but he was fully knocked out and not moving and it wasn’t certain he was breathing.

The physio was checking that he was breathing and the doctor was checking his pulse, but he (Reidy) straps up his wrists, so I just heard the doctor saying, ‘I can’t get his pulse’. That’s when I was like, ‘Oh, fucking hell, somebody get an ambulance.’

“I left then and went to try to get one of the refs to get an ambulance or something, and I think the doctor, then, like a half a second later, checked his (Reidy’s) neck and was like, ‘Oh yeah, he does have a pulse’.

“So, in my mind, (initially) I’d kind of jumped to the next step. Obviously it turned out okay, 30 seconds maybe after that, he started moving and things were fine. He’s actually recovered really well, but it was scary. It was really, really scary.”

On the issue of the tackle itself, and whether it was a one-off, freak episode, O’Donnell was unequivocal.

“It’s not a one-off, it’s not even a one-off this year for our team alone, so it is a problem, I think,” he said.

“It’s the tackle where you’re coming out after rising the ball, when you’re completely exposed. I got hit with one earlier in the year and, looking back on it, it wasn’t the same position and you managed to kind of ride through it, but I didn’t see it happening, got blindsided. You’re still able to take it as long as you’re upright.

“But when you’re coming out of rising the ball, number one, you can’t see it, but two, your head is already low enough. No matter how quickly you come up, your chin is going to get caught with a shoulder. So both Mark (Rodgers) and David have been caught with that exact tackle.

“Mark is still dealing with the situation. It’s not any symptoms that are stopping him from hurling but it’s just other stuff. That shouldn’t be the case after going out playing a game of hurling that you have this stuff to contend with. I think they need to do something about it.”