*Eibhear Quilligan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLARE goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan is back from a serious knee injury ahead of schedule to help lead the county’s quest for promotion back to the top flight of the Allianz National Hurling League.
Once the new year cheer is upon us, all inter-county players are eager to get back to competitive fare. Even just to lessen the arduous block of winter training, the prospect of embracing the National League brings an inevitable giddiness and optimism to all supporters and players.
However, for Eibhear Quilligan, getting back on the field takes on an even greater significance as having suffered a medial collateral knee injury (MCL) in Feakle’s opening county senior hurling championship defence against Wolfe Tones in late July, the prospect of playing in the National League at all was initially a stretch.
“I’m back a bit ahead of schedule alright,” outlined the 2024 All-Ireland winning goalkeeper. “It was just one of those things that if you went off the original date which was the end of March, then you’re almost out of the picture for the season really. So it was just a case of I’m 32 in a few weeks and therefore you never know when it will be your last inter-county year so you want to make the most of the time you have.
“So I just put the head down for a few months and got back a little ahead of time which was great”.
How was it even possible to halve the expected recovery time? “After the surgery, they’re telling you that six months is a realistic comeback target so work to a deadline of the end of March and we’ll see where you are then. So my thought process was that any month that I could shave off that was good progress so I just set little targets that I wanted to hit over the course of each month,” he explained.
“With an injury like that, it was just a case of seeing how things were going each day and how the knee reacts in order to keep pushing the boat out in an effort that it will hopefully come good. And It’s a work in progress, the nature of it means that it’s not gone away, I’m always going to have to keep on top of it now. So it’s just a case of so far, so good as I haven’t picked up any niggles or anything yet so fingers crossed that continues”.
Indeed, the Feakle goalkeeper made his competitive bow for 2026 in the final group outing against Cork in Mallow just over a week ago. “That was the target, to get back in a Clare jersey as quickly as possible so it was great to be back but equally we all left Mallow with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths after losing a game we could have won. So it was kind of mixed emotions in that way because you want to win but we didn’t but it was still lovely to be involved again because when you’re injured, you feel that you offer nothing to the set-up and are no good to anyone in that position.”
It sounds like you’re not the happiest of supporters when you’re injured then? “Awful. The first game I couldn’t play, I’d say I was annoying everyone in the Feakle dressing room as I was just pacing up and down and couldn’t sit still so it was a terrible feeling.
“After winning the championship the year before, we struggled with injuries last year so that was disappointing as we wanted to back it up so it was so frustrating watching the lads going at it and you can’t be part of it”.
Feakle’s plight could be viewed as a microcosm of what Clare also endured in their National league and All-Ireland Senior Championship title defences as injuries to key players certain disrupted Clare’s challenge. However, being the competitor that Quilligan has proven to be, he’s not willing to fall back on that as a means of fully explaining a disappointing inter-county season.
“That’s true to a certain extent that injuries were influential but you could also make a case for club and county that we still needed to do more with the guys that we had on the field. Our standards could have been a bit higher at certain times and our performances could have been better no matter who was on the field so I wouldn’t use it as an excuse that we were missing players last year.
“Yes of course, guys like Conor [Cleary], Diarmuid [Ryan], Shane [O’Donnell] and Tony {Kelly] are big players to be without and you’d much rather them be on the field than not but I still think our performances didn’t justify us getting out of Munster so I definitely wouldn’t be using that as an excuse.”
In an effort to get off to a much brighter start this season, Quilligan is determined to hit the ground running, starting on Sunday with a first National League tie against Dublin in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg at 2pm.
“The target is to get back up to the top division and you just have to go and earn that now by winning enough games. So the goal this Sunday is to try and get over Dublin and put ourselves on the front foot again.
“The league is always a balancing act though as you want to try out new things and new players but at the end of the day, you want to win every game as well so the overall target is to hopefully make the final at the start of April.
“I’ve seen Dublin play already this year and they look really good. They’re in great shape, are moving the ball well and seem well organised so it’s going to be a big challenge on Sunday.
“But that’s what you want, you want a challenge to see where we’re at as a group and see how far we’ve to go. So although it’s only the end of January, it’s still a great test for us and definitely a good measure of what work we’ve put in over the last few weeks and months”.
