FOR A SENSE of appreciation of preparing in a county hurling final, Ryan O\u2019Dwyer only has to reflect on his ordeal twelve months ago.<\/p>\n
On Friday 30 October 2015, he was assaulted outside a Birmingham nightclub and knocked unconscious. The 30 year-old suffered a fractured skull, a broken jaw and bleeding in the brain.<\/p>\n
Next Saturday, 29 October 2016, the Dublin hurler will endeavour to help Kilmacud Crokes land the senior hurling title against Cuala in Parnell Park.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s quite the contrast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very lucky with the people that were surrounding me,\u201d admits O\u2019Dwyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cChris Thompson, my family and my teammates, they are the three that got me back to where I am.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do appreciate it, even though some of them will be playing with Cuala there, next weekend, but I do appreciate them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere I am today, it\u2019s all down to the people who are surrounding me.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Dwyer was in Birmingham with his former Dublin team mate Maurice O\u2019Brien, the pair having stopped off for the night en route to taking in the Rugby World Cup final in Twickenham.<\/p>\n
He has no memory of the unprovoked attack and after spending a week in hospital, journeyed home to Ireland.<\/p>\n
The recovery process was a tough and difficult ordeal.<\/p>\n
\n Ryan O’Dwyer and Mark Schutte ahead of this weekend’s Dublin county senior hurling final<\/p>\n
Source: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/SPORTSFILE<\/p>\n
\u201cI always say it was easier on me than it was on the people surrounding me, especially my fianc\u00e9e.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she had put a pillow over my head and smothered me I wouldn\u2019t have blamed her. I was a horrible person, my whole personality changed. I know a lot of people say I don\u2019t have a good personality anyway!<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it totally changed. I was really irritable, really aggressive, for no reason. If I was chatting to you at Christmas I\u2019d have said, \u2018ah, I\u2019m 100 per cent right now, but looking back now, at Christmas, I was still all over (the place).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only recently I\u2019ve done a little bit of reading into it. With brain injuries, you could get a brain injury and I could get a brain injury and it\u2019s two totally different reactions from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cLouis Theroux was on RTE there last week, did anyone see that? I think it was last Monday night, he was doing a show on brain injuries and my fianc\u00e9e was in tears, she was saying, \u2018that was you\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a woman there, from some part of England, and she was having a row with her husband and getting real aggressive with her kids and she hadn\u2019t seen the kids in a while. Then they interviewed the kids about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCliodhna said, \u2018that was you\u2019. I didn\u2019t realise it, you don\u2019t realise it when it\u2019s happening to yourself. It\u2019s a very scary thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A couple of symptoms still linger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no sense of smell whatsoever. No sense of smell.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd forgetfulness, if I\u2019m having a chat with someone I could forget what I\u2019m talking about. It\u2019s a simple thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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O\u2019Dwyer made his comeback to Dublin hurling colours in May in the Leinster championship against Wexford.<\/p>\n
\n Dublin hurler Ryan O’Dwyer during their Leinster quarter-final against Wexford<\/p>\n
Source: Ryan Byrne\/INPHO<\/p>\n
He pays tribute to the medical experts advising him.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonncha O\u2019Brien one of the neurosurgeons I was dealing with \u2013 I was dealing with three of them \u2013 but he was telling me at the start that I had to stick to a certain plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for the first time ever I actually did what a doctor told me to.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me the risks afterwards and said you have to be aware of your body and what you\u2019re brain is telling you and what it is not telling you and you only get one chance and don\u2019t take anything for granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it made me more aware. There is a risk associated with it, but I think it is just to listen to my body and be aware of getting a slap or running into the wrong people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I knew I was allowed to go back hurling Donnncha O\u2019Brien had said ease into it, try avoid slaps. But then I said it to Chris and he said that\u2019s when you would get injured, when you are holding back, that\u2019s when you do get a slap.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he said for your own sake don\u2019t change your game. And I had to ask myself what got me here to where I am.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019m not the best hurler out there but I\u2019m playing at a reasonably high level and what got me there is the way I play so I said I wasn\u2019t going to abandon that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday affords Kilmacud Crokes the chance to land a third Dublin senior hurling crown in five years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n Source: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/SPORTSFILE<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, I\u2019m very lucky with how things have worked out.\u00a0I didn\u2019t know what was happening a few weeks after.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would mean a lot to win it at any stage. I suppose if we do win I\u2019ll look back and see the road I\u2019ve traveled and say, \u2018Jeez, I\u2019m a stubborn man\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
And irrespective of the result, the prospect of another campaign with Dublin in 2017 is something he would embrace.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like people asking me that, I still consider myself young,\u201d laughs O\u2019Dwyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get to an age where you say I\u2019m going to go year by year now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd yeah I\u2019m going to give it 100 per cent for the year coming and hopefully I stay injury free.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Ger (Cunningham) wants me I\u2019ll definitely be giving it everything I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
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