Clare hurler Shane O'Donnell is calling on the GAA to fully cover the wages of injured players after revealing that the concussion he suffered in 2021 left him €5,000 out of pocket.
The Banner forward came close to walking away from the game following the season-ending injury he sustained in county training that June. Thankfully, he recovered well enough to return in 2022 and won an All-Star for his performances.
O'Donnell, now 29, had just completed a PhD in microbiology and started a new job as a product manager only three days before sustaining the concussion. He ended up taking unpaid leave to recover as he was still in a probationary employment period.
But in October last year, when he finally received the compensation due to him for paying into the GAA's Injury Benefit Fund, he was shocked to discover it worked out at just €1,500 total for six weeks off work.
"Out of the six weeks, you’re allowed to claim €300 a week, which is essentially a social welfare level of payment," he told RTÉ Sport. "You can’t claim for the first week either so I ended up claiming for €1,500.
"Obviously, that’s not going to nearly cover what your loss of wages would have been. Not to give an exact figure but it was about €5k.
"I think people would be surprised. When you see GAA inter-county players play on the weekend and someone has a severe injury, you’re thinking, 'God, I hope they get better’ but you’re definitely not thinking, 'God, I hope this doesn’t put them in financial ruin.’
"Because they’re not covered, and that’s the reality of the situation – the GAA will not cover them. And I don’t think people appreciate that. If I was the sole breadwinner or something to that effect it would definitely come into the calculation of ‘is it worth the added risk if I end up taking a bad injury or a leg-break?'
"It wasn’t personally the reason that I had considered not playing again, that was purely on health grounds, but it definitely would have to come into the calculation.
"When I went back after the six weeks, I was almost 100% certain I was going to lose my job. I had blown a six-week hole at the start. When I came back, I was doing half-days, reduced screen time days. Bearing in mind my boss was Swedish, he doesn’t know what hurling is and he doesn’t know why suddenly I was off. Thankfully he was very considerate about it and treated me fairly."
"The idea is players won't be in the situation where they’re out of pocket for playing for their county, be that in training or matches"
Stunned to receive such little recompense 16 months later, O’Donnell reached out to the GAA on the issue but says he got short shrift.
"I would have sent an email through our county board to the director of finance for the GAA [Ger Mulryan]. And he basically responded with a very condescending email, to be honest. The tone of the email was essentially I should be happy with what they were willing to give me.
"It stung me at the time. To be honest, I was absolutely infuriated but there was no recourse, really. I wanted to send quite an angry email back. But I realised that that wasn't going to get me anywhere.
"It definitely was not worth it. For the amount of hoops I’d to jump through, and the frustration, especially at the end of the process. It would have been far more straightforward if I just claimed social welfare for the six weeks and then just not engage with this process at all."
The 2013 All-Ireland winner is bringing a motion to the Gaelic Players Association AGM today, requesting that the GPA ‘call on the GAA/LGFA/Camogie Association for improved injury coverage, addressing the inadequacy of the current insurance in safeguarding inter-county players from financial loss’.
"The idea is players won’t be in the situation where they’re out of pocket for playing for their county, be that in training or matches," he said. "I don’t think that’s an unreasonable ask.
"You forget about it when you get back into the panel. I think that’s probably what’s protected the GAA so much. Inter-county players just love playing the matches."
The GAA's Injury Benefit Fund is financed by player subscriptions (€1,000 per adult team, at all levels) and 6% of league and championship gate receipts.
Under the terms of the fund, players can receive compensation of lost wages for up to €300 per week for a maximum of 25 weeks (2-26 weeks after the injury) and up to €5,200 in medical expenses, up from €4,500 last year. In the equivalent Ladies Gaelic Football scheme, loss of earnings compensation is capped at €200 for 20 weeks while the Camogie Association does not have one.
O’Donnell observes that medical expenses are only refundable after the fact and that €5,200 wouldn’t cover all types of injuries.
"You’re completely at the will of the county board, whether they’re going to cover your surgery or not. The county board essentially pay it and they can claim back that max limit.
"From [former Clare team-mate] Darach [Honan]’s example, he didn’t get anything, I think. But that wouldn’t have covered his [hip surgery], even if he was able to claim it."
The GAA says it spent over €8m last year helping 6,606 players to recover from injury but O’Donnell thinks the fact that the injury fund recorded a surplus of €2.1m in 2022, and has €8.3m in reserves, suggests there is scope to scrap the €300 per week limit.
"I would like to see that you get your full wages back. If they had to put in a limit, 26 weeks is OK, but 26 weeks on €300 is essentially being on social welfare. That’s not a loss of wages cover. €300 is the major issue.
"You can imagine the response from the GAA will be some effect of ‘We can’t afford this’ but the number of people playing, the subset of them working full-time, which is probably a minority considering how many students are playing at inter-county level, how expensive is it going to be when it comes down to it? How many injuries are people going to be picking up that they’re actually out of their own pocket?"
In response, the GAA told RTÉ Sport that "a review over the current loss of wages limits is currently ongoing, with further recommendations expected to be made to Coiste Bainistíochta [Management Committee] in the new year.
"The Injury Fund is kept under ongoing review and earlier this year the minimum injury expense claim limit was increased from €4,500 to €5,200 per claim. This was approved by Coiste Bainistíochta in a measure to manage and utilise some of the fund's current surplus and this measure is expected to cost the fund €2m over the next four years.
"The 2022 surplus has primarily arisen from a write-back of a batch of older claims [pre-2020 claims] that did not reach their provisioned claim values. The fund has been in deficit previously, hence the GAA's requirement to contribute €2m approximately per annum from championship gate receipts to maintain the Injury Fund reserves in a positive and healthy position to allow it deal with current and future challenges.
"The GAA Player Injury Fund has strict fund rules that govern how all claims are managed and assessed for each registered player. All registered GAA playing member claims are treated equally under the fund rules. Inter-county players do avail of a slightly enhanced level of cover as agreed previously with the GPA. This increased cover was administered in 2022 by an independent insurance firm and not the GAA."
O'Donnell expects to skip the Allianz Hurling League again but plans to be back for another attempt to knock Munster and four-in-a-row All-Ireland champions Limerick off their perch.
"The first time I took the league off, it was an effort to reduce my time on the pitch from a health perspective," said the Éire Óg Ennis man. "The last two years, I have had the opportunity to come back in March with a renewed level of enthusiasm and I think there is a lot to be said about the GPA’s other motion about removing pre-season competitions which from my perspective is a no brainer.
"When you have an opportunity to have a longer time off, you come back far more enthusiastic. I don’t think it detracts at all from your ability to perform at all on championship days.
"Massively looking forward to next year. Obviously, Limerick are going for a huge milestone and we will see what we can do in that respect.
"We believe that we are able to beat Limerick. We did it once this year and unfortunately it was the less important of the two times we met them but next year will be another opportunity."
Watch Doon versus Na Piarsaigh in the Limerick SHC from 2.45pm on RTÉ2.
