Three years ago this week, Antrim handballer Aisling Reilly was preparing to fly to Canada for the triennial World Handball Championships, where she would retain her Women’s Open Singles title with a stellar final display against Catriona Casey of Cork.
In the interim, a lot has gone wrong for the St Paul’s, Belfast right-hander. A debilitating shoulder injury eventually required surgery and, in her absence, the landscape has changed.
Martina McMahon of Limerick defeated Casey in this year’s All-Ireland final and with Galway footballer Ciana Ní Churaoín back in the mix after a serious knee injury, Reilly is aware that she has become something a forgotten superpower.
And that, she stated at today’s launch, has only made her doubly determined.
"Charly Shanks [Armagh’s former All-Ireland champion] once told me that handball quickly forgets and that’s something that has stuck in my head over the last few months," said Reilly.
"I suppose I can use it to my advantage or I can let it get to me. Over the last six months my preparations have been perfect, I’ve probably felt as good as I have ever. I haven’t been playing competitions regularly but I’m hopeful, I feel good and I feel confident and I’m really looking forward to it."
For all that, clawing her way back from shoulder trouble has not been easy, she admitted.
"I suffered for a lot of years with shoulder pain and I thought it was just from my style of play. It wasn’t getting any better and I had exhausted all other routes, physiotherapy, acupuncture and injections, all that type of stuff.
"I didn’t know how serious it was but when the surgeons opened my shoulder up they found three tears. He gave me a time frame of a year and a half and we’re just coming up to that now.
"When we played the doubles trials for Team Ireland [in April] I still had a small bit of residual pain post-surgery but in the last eight weeks I have been completely pain-free so hopefully it continues like that."
Reilly will fly out on Tuesday along with the rest of the 19-strong official Irish squad for what she believes will be the toughest renewal of them all.
"It’s one of the strongest fields I can ever remember, it will literally be whoever plays the best over the entire week, it won’t be about someone striking lucky here or there. It’s going to have to be a dominant performance all week long," she said.
"In previous years people may have had their final two picked out but I think is going to be a tough bracket, from the round of 16 on there will be nothing easy."
