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New venture helps McDonald make marginal gains

'I just enjoy helping people and essentially changing people's lives.'
'I just enjoy helping people and essentially changing people's lives.'

Wexford's Conor McDonald is a busy man, as well as preparing for the upcoming Leinster hurling championship he is also now running his own gym.

The 22-year-old recently opened the state of the art fitness centre in his hometown in Gorey. He’s following his dream and it conveniently complements his hurling ambitions.

"To be honest, I think a lot of GAA players are going down that route because they're comfortable in that environment, " McDonald told RTÉ Sport.

"I think they've a lot to offer in that environment, especially in Ireland.

"It can aid your GAA career but I think an awful lot of players are using it to their advantage to try and work both ways on the field and off."

A former geography and Irish student at UCD, he was at one time contemplating a teaching as a career option but a stint in England working in a gym put him on a different path.

"I took the route after were people saying 'oh yeah, teaching would be great for you' and all this, (the) holidays.

"Last September I went to England, worked in a gym over there and decided this was the right thing for me.

"I just enjoy helping people and essentially changing people's lives really and you get a boost from that when you're helping other people.

"Exercise and stuff has been (there) all the way up with the hurling and I'd have learned an awful lot from it. I suppose it's an easy way to enjoy the workplace as well."

And as for squeezing in some extra sessions?

"Whenever I get a spare hour of course. It's trying to find those little gaps in the day every day. The more you recover, the more capable you're going to be."

With the demands of an inter-county career and a new business stress is inevitable but McDonald is enjoying the experience.

"It can be stressful. I suppose the way I see it, it's a bit of a challenge and it's kind of a challenge on the other side of my life where I'll be playing matches and you're getting challenged every week.

"You can kind of focus on that for the time that you're there and every other part of my life is a challenge to get people in the door and essentially try and help them."

His team-mate Lee Chin is taking some time away from the professional world to focus on his hurling and this decision has led to much debate about the direction the GAA is headed in. However, this isn’t a route that McDonald would go down.

"If he is professional," McDonald laughs. "That's a bit of a stretch. There's no professionals in Gaelic games I don't think.

"At the end of the day you need to make a living and I know he is as well. I'm not sure if you can completely focus on playing either, he seems to be doing ok.

"I think the media are kind of pushing it a bit further than what he portrayed in the first place."

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