When Shane O’Donnell would occasionally free his right shoulder from the rigid sling he was required to wear for four weeks after undergoing surgery at the end of January, such was the sense of loss around the limb that missing the entire hurling championship with Clare seemed inevitable.

“It was terrifying how weak it felt, and I would be almost scared of it,” O’Donnell explains. “When I had to take it out of the sling, and go into the shower, it felt like I’m 150 years of age.

“It’s a labrum tear, so it’s just like from the top, on the right side. But it never dislocated, so it didn’t tear out the front or anything. So it’s just a slightly unconventional injury. This one needs a lot longer because it just has to settle itself without having something bolting it into place.”

Now, another six weeks since the sling was removed, O’Donnell is far more hopeful of playing some role, a timely boost for the All-Ireland champions as they begin their title defence against Cork in Ennis this Sunday.

While O’Donnell expects to be back to full contact hurling “in anywhere between four and eight weeks”, any participation will ultimately rest on Clare’s progression. Their final game in Munster is against Limerick on Sunday, May 25th, just under six weeks away, and there are no guarantees after that.

The 2024 Hurler of the Year, who turns 31 in June, was originally expected to be ruled out of the game for six months, thus missing Clare’s entire championship campaign, but the enhanced pace of his recovery means he’s in with some chance.

“I don’t have any dates or anything like that. It’s coming along well. I’m still a bit away to be honest, so I don’t have a date that I can give you. I’m still kind of working with physios and I’m actually coming to the point where in the next week or so I should be able to hammer out and understand where it’ll be. But it’ll be anywhere between four and eight weeks, I’d say, still in it. That’s kind of the timeline we’re looking at.”

Speaking at a Bord Gáis Energy event in Croke Park to announce their sponsorship extension of the hurling championship, O’Donnell also says his pending return shouldn’t be curtailed by the lay-off: even if some opponents will likely test his shoulder for is original strength.

“I think it’s an inevitable part of it, but I feel very confident in it, in a funny kind of way, because I’ve done so much work on it. It’s gone from that [weakness], to building it up, I feel really good in it now.

“There’s a couple of movements, there is a deficit, and that’s why I still need a good bit of time. But I know 100 per cent certain that by the time I go on in championship, if I get an opportunity to go on championship, that I’ll be able to take whatever comes.”

What is certain is that O’Donnell couldn’t have played on without surgery: “The main injury was actually in the All-Ireland last year, like I got caught on my knees actually, I tried to turn around and I kind of ended up falling back on to my elbow. And then I basically aggravated it in training there at the end of the year, and that was when I realised like, ‘hold on a second, this isn’t getting better’.

“So I went to a consultant and she was like, ‘if you want to play next year you’re going to need surgery’. So that was the conversation.

“Initially the surgeon told me that it was six months recovery, so that was what I told Brian [Lohan, the Clare manager]. It’s still very unclear exactly how much time I’ll be able to shave off, but that’ll become clear in the next week or two. But in the meantime I still have to spectate some of the Clare games, which is not a big deal.”

The two-time All-Ireland winner has endured a lengthy lay-off before, mainly related to a chronic concussion issue four years ago. The injury also coincided with O’Donnell’s new job in construction software development in Dublin, a move away from his previous speciality in microbiome data, and that also afforded him the headspace he needed.

“I’m so excited to get back. I started the new job in January, so in some ways it’s been good to be able to be a little bit more disconnected, and to really commit the time to that.

“But in the last few weeks now, the league is done, and everyone has turned focus and attention to a huge game against Cork and Cusack Park. That is what you play hurling for. And that’s where the caution is, you don’t want to be in a situation that you could kind of re-injure or you’re weaker or you’re not able to do certain movements or things like that.”