Shane O'Donnell: Injuries shouldn't put Gaelic Games players out of pocket

Clare hurler Shane O'Donnell is calling on the GAA to fully cover the wages of injured players after revealing that the concussion he suffered in 2021 left him €5,000 out of pocket.

The Banner forward came close to walking away from the game following the season-ending injury he sustained in county training that June. Thankfully, he recovered well enough to return in 2022 and won an All-Star for his performances.

O'Donnell, now 29, had just completed a PhD in microbiology and started a new job as a product manager only three days before sustaining the concussion. He ended up taking unpaid leave to recover as he was still in a probationary employment period.

But in October last year, when he finally received the compensation due to him for paying into the GAA's Injury Benefit Fund, he was shocked to discover it worked out at just €1,500 total for six weeks off work.

"Out of the six weeks, you’re allowed to claim €300 a week, which is essentially a social welfare level of payment," he told RTÉ Sport. "You can’t claim for the first week either so I ended up claiming for €1,500.

"Obviously, that’s not going to nearly cover what your loss of wages would have been. Not to give an exact figure but it was about €5k.

"I think people would be surprised. When you see GAA inter-county players play on the weekend and someone has a severe injury, you’re thinking, 'God, I hope they get better’ but you’re definitely not thinking, 'God, I hope this doesn’t put them in financial ruin.’

"Because they’re not covered, and that’s the reality of the situation – the GAA will not cover them. And I don’t think people appreciate that. If I was the sole breadwinner or something to that effect it would definitely come into the calculation of ‘is it worth