With her thigh wrapped in a tight bandage, Ashling Thompson was never going to miss the All-Ireland senior camogie championship semi-final against Tipperary no matter what.<\/p>\n
Having to deal with a new injury subsequent to recovering from another was never part of the Cork dynamo\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t schedule a scan, preferring instead to play it by ear.<\/p>\n
That is understandable, when you consider what she had been through with a horrific elbow injury sustained in a league game in March.<\/p>\n
When we catch up with her two days following the Tipperary victory and a little under a fortnight before contesting her 11th All-Ireland senior final with the Rebels, she sits out training after test results confirm a hamstring tear.<\/p>\n
But it is the sight of the long scar running down her arm that firstly brings us back to that fateful day in Kilkenny.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happened two days after my 36th birthday, it was some birthday,\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was totally taken aback, I had no idea the extent of the injury. It wasn\u2019t until our team doctor Louise O\u2019Connell gave me a call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sitting in a car park in the Grand Parade (Cork) and I thought my whole world was turning upside down to be honest and the tears were flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a full dislocation and when the elbow dislocated it broke the radial head, so that needed surgery and with such a severe dislocation that took ligaments and tendons with it. There was tissue repair and then I had to get the radial head screwed back together.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, an absolutely nasty one. I was pretty much ruled out for the rest of the season, given a small window of hope, and any bit of hope I was ready to grasp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never had an injury of that sort. I actually thought they\u2019ll pop it back in and what\u2019s a break? Six weeks? That\u2019s what was in my head. I was fully convinced I would make it back within a short period. I didn\u2019t realise it needed surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a couple of conversations. Had a chat with the surgeon and he said four months, which would be the All-Ireland semi-final\/final. I got back for Waterford (June 28). I was actually togged out for Tipp (June 14) hoping to get 10 or 15 minutes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That she returned ahead of time speaks volumes about her mental fortitude. Then, the misfortune of the hamstring struck.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose I\u2019m kind of chasing, since the elbow. The weather and the change of surface, I picked up a knock on the Tuesday night before the Tipp game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said I\u2019d rest for the week. It was touch and go. I said I\u2019d keep going and if it came to it I was ready to come off. I felt strong enough to do 40 minutes (she played 60).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be minding it as much as I can. There is hope. I\u2019ll cling on to that hope and be ready, please God.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeven medals sounds better than six,\u201d she says of her quest for yet another Celtic Cross.<\/p>\n
Her maiden success came in 2014, marking the start of a decorated career that dates back even further.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was 16 when I got called up first, I think it was around 2006. It\u2019s mad I\u2019ve been in and out of the Cork senior panel for the last 20 years. It was 2013 when I went full on with the senior squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI captained Cork to All-Ireland success in 2015 against Galway. An unbelievable moment for me, my club (Milford) and my family. I still remember it to this day and think of all the fantastic moments we\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo say we\u2019re back in another All-Ireland final, especially going back to the league and facing relegation, I never thought we would be in a position to contend again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A fresh cohort of players aided the comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have known half the girls in general,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a lot younger than me, a massive gap. Girls that I had never seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we got knocked out of Munster that seven-week block stood to us massively. We stayed together and trained three nights a week and twice in the gym. It was time that we needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cA huge thing as well was winning the U23 competition. You can see the confidence in the likes of Millie Condon, Ava Fitzgerald, Niamh McNabola, Amy Sheppard\u2026there are so many to name. Orlaith Cahalane being able to play with her own age group and M\u00e9abh Murphy as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cork face champions Galway for the third final in a row on Sunday. It stands at one apiece. One win each this year as well, which sets it up nicely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m disappointed with our second half in the semi-final, but look, we laid down a good marker in the first half. The thing is you can\u2019t be taking your foot off the gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve met Galway so many times across my career, whether it is finals or semi-finals, we know each other inside out. They\u2019re going to be the favourites, they\u2019re the title holders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, the shackles are off with us. There is no pressure. And no pressure on the younger players who have performed exceptionally well. If we can get a win, it is just a bonus. But we won\u2019t fear it either.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With her thigh wrapped in a tight bandage, Ashling Thompson was never going to miss the All-Ireland senior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[12190,1263,24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":["post-620063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-camogie","tag-cork-sport","tag-cork-gaa","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117037774301972159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}