Shefflin never considered retirement

Henry Shefflin never considered following some of his former Kilkenny team-mates into retirement after last year’s All-Ireland win – even after another cruel injury blow that leaves him facing six months on the sidelines.

James Fitzpatrick, Eddie Brennan and PJ Ryan, stalwarts of the all-conquering Kilkenny side of recent years, have all walked into the sunset in recent weeks, having wrestled the Liam MacCarthy Cup back off Tipperary in last September.

When Shefflin damaged a shoulder while playing for Ballyhale Shamrocks in the county semi-final in Novemeber, it initially appeared to be little more than a niggle, but further investigation revealed that the cartliage surrounding the joint had been completely ripped away and he was facing a lengthy lay-off.

Many assumed that the eight-time All-Ireland winner, facing another agonising rehabilitation after his cruciate woes in 2010, would decide enough was enough and call time on his career in the tiger stripes.

Shefflin, however, wants to walk away on his own terms and refuses to let the end of his career to be dictated by injury.

“I thoroughly enjoyed last year, I thought it was a great year and it worked out well for myself and for Kilkenny,” Shefflin said in an interview with www.gaa.ie.

“I was looking forward to getting back into next year, getting back involved because I enjoyed it so much. Then I got the injury and I was saying to myself: ‘I don’t want to leave on an injury to put me out.

“I didn’t get the time to enjoy last year and now I am back, back in training again, just doing my rehab again.

“The last couple of years have taken on a life of its own with injuries and hurling, and that’s the way it’s been.

“In that sense I didn’t even reflect on it too much, but once I got the injury I wasn’t going to let that stop me so I’m going to try and get back.”

Shefflin’s powers of recovery are famous, his ability to endure pain for the cause equally so.

He sustained the injury in the county semi-final against O’Loughlin Gaels in November, continued to the end of the game and even played the county final and subsequent replay against James Stephens before he decided to have the darting pain in his shoulder investigated.

“That’s why I got such a shock when the surgeon told me because I thought it was a sore shoulder that needed a bit of rest,” he continues.

“I was very unlucky. It was just one of those things, the shoulder was slipping in and out of place. It was an unstable shoulder but they are the joys of it.

“I knew myself in those county semi-finals that I wasn’t quite right. I know I have to get back to that level and that’s what is ahead of me.”