Collins puts his shoulder to the wheel to overcome injury

FOR the only time last Sunday, Clare wing-forward Seán Collins was unable to control what he was doing. Luckily enough, it was within the confines of an ecstatic Clare dressing room.

First off, the Cratloe man just couldn’t shake off his smile, sparked off by winning an All-Ireland medal. Neither did he appear to have any control over removing a swathe of bandages from his damaged shoulder. On the evening of Sunday, August 29, Collins sustained a grade one dislocation of the AC joint in an intermediate football championship match against St Breckan’s in Gurteen.
Specialist medical advice suggested that he would need six to eight weeks to recover.
He was back hurling within 11 days, having under gone intensive treatment, including cryo-therapy, before lining out from the start last Sunday.
“It’s very sore now after the game,” Collins said of his injured joint, which is now up there with Seán McMahon’s in terms of defiant shoulders.
“When the adrenaline was going it was grand. It’s the best feeling of my life. It was worth everything. That final whistle, I’ll never forget it,” he added, the noise now peaking in the Clare changing room.
Time was almost up before the dual player felt his shoulder twinge uncomfortably.
“I felt it near the end of the second half. I’d say if it went to extra-time now, I wouldn’t have continued, to be honest. But to see Cormac’s score there at the end – what a score. Thank God he came up trumps for us,” he reflected.
Total belief, Collins feels, was the key to Clare’s glory laden year.
“This team, all year, even down in Waterford and for the Galway match, they always dug it out. Again today, there was no doubt that we were going to win.
“There’s great self-belief in this team and great confidence. Thank God it happened again today. It’s just brilliant. I can’t believe it,” he repeated, struggling to stop smiling, remove the bandages and take it all in.