Na Piarsaigh’s Kevin Downes hoping to make it third time lucky

“I thought that was going to come up,” says Kevin Downes, acutely aware there is no avoiding the concussion issue these days.

Hurlers, it seems, are every bit as susceptible as footballers and rugby players, despite wearing helmets, although for Downes, the symptoms alone – not protocol – were enough for him to realise that.

So, unlike the incident highlighted by Mayo footballer Lee Keegan last weekend, Downes effectively made his own decision not to play in the Munster club hurling final last November; not that it was an easy decision, given his key role at full forward – plus Na Piarsaigh’s enduring quest to land that elusive AIB All-Ireland club title.

For Downes, the problem started with a clash of heads – “seen it numerous times, just a bit unfortunate” – at the end of their Munster semi-final win over Thurles Sarsfields.

Downes was happy to walk off the field, as the game was won anyway, although he soon realised he’d possibly sustained a concussion (or traumatic brain injury, to give it the more pertinent term).

Brain injury

Na Piarsaigh were down to play Ballygunner just seven days later, and Downes immediately had some doubts about his participation, partly because he’d sustained a traumatic brain injury before, while playing for Limerick, back in 2012.

“It was very, very frustrating,” he explains. “With concussion you can’t define it very quickly after. I knew I had a sore head, but you’re just kind of hoping that it goes away within two or three days. I suppose it was fairly apparent on the Wednesday or Thursday that I wasn’t going to play.

“In the end it was a joint decision, really. Dave Boylan is the club doctor and we’d a chat about it. Were the symptoms going away? No, they weren’t, and in fairness to Dave he was very straight down the line.

“He wasn’t a Na Piarsaigh man with this decision. If there were any doubts, I wasn’t going to play. People were saying it was just protocol, but I just wasn’t fit to play. It was as simple as that. It wasn’t protocol.

He continues: “You have to give it a few days, but you’ve a fair idea yourself. By the Wednesday or Thursday it was fairly apparent. The symptoms weren’t going away, so the game was out.”

What happened with Keegan in the Mayo-Cork NFL game last weekend, says Downes, was pretty clear to see. Indeed, the Mayo management have since said Keegan should have left the field immediately (he played on for another 10 minutes), but again the player must take some responsibility too.

“Incidents like that will make it more public. Mayo came out and said he should have come off, and he should have. It was blatantly obvious he should have come off. So I think everyone is getting more aware of it now. It is a serious injury.”

That becomes clear when Downes describes some of his own symptoms: “If you were looking at the television, it’s very hard to focus your eyes. So blurred vision is the first thing. And you don’t feel well at all, start getting pale. Fatigue sets in. You’re straining your eyes.

“Any movement affects you. So apart from the medical side of things, playing a game of hurling wouldn’t be ideal, with the ball fizzing around.

“Concussion is tough to define. Okay, I knew I was after getting a bang on the head. And I was feeling blurred, dizzy. But it’s still very hard to say ‘yes, you are clinically concussed’. But if it’s blatantly obvious then there is a fair old chance you have it.”

Despite his own fears and realisation of the seriousness of the issue, Downes doesn’t feel his hurling career is threatened by it. “It’s not something you’d be foolish with. It’s bad luck too, really. Everyone gets a bang on the head playing hurling. The first one wasn’t much of a bang at all. Whatever way the impact was seemed to trigger it. But no, I won’t be hanging up the boots any day soon. We’ll keep ploughing on.”

Toughest player

Starting with Saturday’s AIB All-Ireland club semi-final against Oulart the Ballagh from Wexford, another team still chasing an All-Ireland. Despite missing the Munster final, Downes picked up the AIB “toughest player” award for his role in helping Na Piarsaigh through Munster, and Saturday’s semi-final presents the chance to amend the two defeats at a similar stage in recent years.

“We lost semi-finals to Loughgiel in 2011 and Portumna in 2013. Hopefully we’ll try to take whatever experience we’ve got from those two games.

“But no Limerick club has won the All-Ireland, and Limerick haven’t won an All-Ireland since ’73. So you can’t walk away from that. Until someone does do it, it’s going to be there.”