Síofra O’Shea helps show Kerry the way even though she can’t play

It says a lot about Síofra O’Shea’s character that she travelled to Croke Park on Tuesday to represent Kerry at the All-Ireland final media day.

A second cruciate knee ligament injury, at just 21 years of age, has robbed the Kerry captain of featuring in Sunday’s decider against Dublin, but O’Shea still intends to play her part.

“I’ll be around the panel, try to make an impact whatever way I can,” says the Caherdaniel forward.

“We have 36 players on the squad so we’re all looking forward to the game, whether you are on the team, the subs or the extended panel, we all have some bit of a role.

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“I think I’ve grown in the role of captaincy as the year has gone on. At the start of the year I was probably doing my talking on the pitch, but as the year has gone on I’ve probably had a bigger voice in the dressingroom and around the place. I’ll be there and I’ll be giving little pieces of advice where necessary.

“But the girls are great and there’s lots of leaders around that dressingroom who have been there for many years and I have full faith in them to get the job done.”

O’Shea reckons surgery on her left knee will probably take place at the end of August. In June 2021, during the opening stages of a league game against Wexford in Fitzgerald Stadium, O’Shea tore the cruciate in her right knee. She did not return to action until May 2022.

Then, having this year played a leading role in Kerry’s season, on the Sunday before their All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo last month, O’Shea landed awkwardly after taking a shot in training and jarred her knee.

She got up from the ground and was able to hobble off the pitch, but an MRI the following morning confirmed that sport remains at times an unashamedly cruel business.

“I wasn’t expecting to hear that it was a cruciate, it was gutting. I was very disappointed when I heard it,” she says.

“But your focus turns then to the team. I told the girls I wanted full focus to be on the Mayo game because we couldn’t lack any focus or have any distractions for that game.”

Kerry got over Mayo, but the hurdle gets higher on Sunday when they meet Dublin at Croke Park. And while the Kingdom will be pushing on without their on-field general, O’Shea’s absence makes the challenge all the greater.

“I’d been having a good season,” she admits. “It was probably the first season I had any consistency with injuries.

“This was the first year I got a full league campaign under my belt, I felt I was going well but we’ve built such a strong panel over the last four years, you saw the impact Danielle O’Leary had in the semi-final against Mayo, she was unbelievable. We have players who can step up to the mark. Hopefully they can do the job the next day.”

As for O’Shea, no matter what transpires at Croke Park on Sunday, she intends to spend the winter rehabbing and preparing her body ready to resume in 2024 where she left off this term.

O’Shea watched in admiration as Ashling Thompson, who suffered a cruciate tear last August, contributed to Cork’s triumphant All-Ireland camogie charge in recent weeks.

“She was flying the last day and making a great impact in any game she came on,” says O’Shea. “To see her recovery and how she got back to her best was a good inspiration.

“I’ve been through it before myself as well, getting back last year for the latter stages of the championship and performing, so I know it can be done. I’ll be pushing myself to get back better than before.”

Kerry’s captain, all the way until the very end.