"It was tough news to take," recalls Darach Honan.
"I was only 26 and the surgeon told me that if I kept playing hurling, I would need a hip replacement in two years.
"I knew what I had to do: there is more to life than hurling."
Honan is very matter-of-fact when talking about what he has had to come to terms with over the last few months.
But every now and then he offers glimpses of the pain that he went through both physically and emotionally when making the decision to give up playing the game he loves.
He is 27 now and a former inter-county hurler. Just a couple of days ago, the news broke that his days in the saffron and blue were behind him. He didn’t quite have the career he’d hoped for or the one that hurling fans in Clare predicted.
When Honan was an underage hurler he was the toast of the county. At every level, he towered over his peers, but it wasn’t just his 6ft 7ins height that had people taking notice, it was his skill, ability and accuracy.
The Clonlara man was an unstoppable force, who oozed passion for the game. His father Colm was an All-Star hurler so there was pedigree to boot. There was no doubt he was special and onlookers couldn’t wait to see him mature into a star.
Honan did just that in remarkable fashion: in 2009 he lit up the All-Ireland U21 championship and then scored 1-03 on his senior debut in the Munster semi-final against Waterford a year later,.
When Clare won the All-Ireland final replay in 2013 it was Honan who put the fifth goal in the back of the net. Little did he know that it would the last season he would really enjoy or that he would never reach those highs again.
"My problems with my hips started in 2011 and I had my surgery shortly after that but that wasn’t the end of it," he told RTÉ Sport.
"In June 2016, when I was playing I aggravated it after the first round of the championship, I didn’t play the subsequent games because of this.
"The last game I played was the county final last year and I hadn’t trained for six or seven weeks at that stage. I gave it my best shot to get back in 2017 but it wasn’t going to happen so I decided to talk about more surgery."
Honan went to Whitfield Clinic in Waterford seeking a solution to his hip problems. However, the news wasn’t good: he was told he needed more surgery and would require a hip replacement if he continued to play.
"After I was told the extent of the damage to my hip I was very upset. I had to pull over when I was driving home. It was very hard to take."
Honan had to decide whether prolonging his inter-county career was work risking his long-term health. He spoke to family and friends but knew that ultimately it was his call.
"I had to make up my own mind, but for a while I was very low. I decided to get the surgery that I needed and call time on my career.
"I have cartilage damage on my hip and also had a bony growth impingement on the bone there. They were hitting off each other and that meant that the cartilage was wearing away.
"So what the surgeon did was take away the bone that was causing the friction but the cartilage is still damaged.
"As time has gone on it has got easier and I have been able to concentrate on my career as a financial planner a lot more.
"In some ways, having the profile of being an inter-county hurler helped me with my career but in other ways the demands of it was holding me back."
Honan firmly believes the training that he has done over the years caused his injury and he is not the only player to have hip problems on the Clare team.
Along with Honan, Conor McGrath, Cian Dillon and Seadna Morey have all had hip surgery in recent years.
"I put it down to poor load-management and all the training that we were doing. It’s worrying and it is something that needs to be addressed in the GAA.
"Some of the training regimes are not good for the teams and there has to be more responsibility taken by people in charge."
Honan's tale is a familiar one as several high-profile GAA stars have had have under gone hip surgeries in recent times, including Cillian Buckley, Karl Lacey, Richie Power, Maurice Shanahan and Darran O'Sullivan.
Although Honan’s career was short, it was a fruitful one, he was part of team that brought the Liam MacCarthy back to the Banner County after a 16 year wait.
His days on the pitch may be over but he’s left his mark.
