David Reidy on being knocked unconscious: ‘My first memory was the physio ahead of me’

David Reidy remembers coming on to the pitch as a sub that sunny Saturday in Semple Stadium. He remembers waking up on it too, around three minutes later. Flat on his back, wondering why he had the Clare physio above him and the team doctor at his side. He doesn’t remember what happened in between, even though it’s the one thing anyone who watched hurling this summer remembers about him.

In fact, when he first watched the game back, he saw a passage of play where the ball was coming towards him around midfield and his immediate thought was that the challenge must have come from behind. But he was 36 seconds ahead of himself. The shoulder to the head by Dublin’s Brendan Kenny that knocked him out in the next passage of play was very much fronton and happened much closer to the Clare goal. That’s how little Reidy knew of it.