Oxygen chamber aids club final referee James Owens' long Covid recovery

James Owens has revealed how he overcame the effects of long Covid-19 to take charge of this weekend's All-Ireland Club Senior hurling championship decider.

The long-standing inter-county referee contracted Covid last August, and after an initial recovery, he suffered the physical effects of the more long-term version of the illness.

Fatigue and shortness of breath were the main symptoms he endured before remedying the matter with the help of an oxygen chamber at Hyperbaric Wexford, working with local physical therapist Donal 'Gammy’ O’Connor at his practice outside Enniscorthy.

"Only for Donal’s oxygen chamber, I simply wouldn’t have got the club final," the 45-year-old Askamore-Kilrush man insists, in relation to the therapy, which pumps pure oxygen throughout the body in one-hour sessions.

Kilkenny hurling goalkeeper Eoin Murphy, Wexford hurling defender Liam Ryan, and recent All-Ireland Club Senior camogie championship winner Una Leacy have used the chamber to aid their respective recoveries from injury.

"When long Covid struck, I simply wasn’t able to run. My lungs weren’t able to generate the required air capacity," said Owens, who undertook five treatments before passing the national GAA referees' fitness test on 29 January.

"When I first got Covid-19 last August, I only suffered from flu for a day or two. But around October or November, long Covid hit me, and I felt really tired and just absolutely fatigued.

"I was trying to keep fit. But where normally I would recover quickly after any activity, suddenly it was taking two days to feel okay.

"I just had to sleep off the tiredness. Three or four days later I would get a fresh bout of energy. But the fatigue would always return and it was extremely draining.

"I got out of