For the first time, Sarsfields' Paul Leopold tells his inspiring story 

WINNING a county championship medal is sweet at the best of times but when you have travelled the road that Paul Leopold has travelled it’s the best feeling you can ever experience.

The tigerish defender was immense for Sarsfields this season as they won the top flight hurling championship in the Rebel county for the first time since 2014. For the first time, Leopold opens up on his incredible journey from a Boston Hospital wondering if he would survive to playing an integral role in Sarsfields winning the Sean Óg Murphy Cup. It’s a magical story.

At the time, four years ago, we were told it was a serious injury but no further details were released. Leopold was full of life as he headed for America for the summer back in 2019. He would never have thought what was going to happen around the corner. Leopold goes into huge length and detail as he tells his story.

“I just made the decision to go away and play hurling in Boston just purely off my own back. I always wanted to go travelling. I was hurling away, I played the first two games with Tipperary Boston, which we won, everything was rosy in the garden. We had a couple of weeks to our next game, so I went to New York to see the cousins. I spent the week there, came back to Boston on the Sunday night, I went to bed early, I wasn’t feeling well, it felt like I had the flu. I was working on a site, labouring for carpenters, I messaged the boss saying I wasn’t too good. This went on for a few days so the boss called to the house and came into the bedroom and I was as pale as a sheet. I thought I had the flu so the boss brought me to the doctors, they put me on a drip to hydrate me, within 20 minutes one of the doctors said we will have to send you for a brain scan.

“I had the scan on my brain and neck done within 30 minutes, I was back on the trolley hooked up to the drip and a doctor came into the room and said I have bad news. He said we are after finding a massive brain aneurysm on the right side of your brain. It was an irregular shape and it was ready to burst. It was extremely serious. I then got transferred to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, the biggest hospital in Boston, and a few days later I had brain surgery.” 

It was an incredibly worrying time for the then 23-year-old, on more than one occasion he was told he would never play sport ever again. It was a long road ahead but one that would have a happy ending.

“After the brain surgery I was in a coma, I was asleep for nearly 24 hours. I eventually woke up but I was under massive medication. One of my best friends James Sweeney was in the room when I woke up and I just saw him and I said, Sweeney get in for a picture there. All I can move is my hand and it’s a very positive picture. My family and friends flew in to see me. A series of tests had to be done on me as when they cut into my head they cut into the side of my jaw as well so my jaw was wired shut. I couldn’t eat any food, I got really thin and my head was shaved so I looked horrendous.

“I was released about two weeks after the surgery so I went back to Ronan Dempsey’s house who was captain of the Boston Tipperary hurling team to continue my recovery with my mother by my side. I was told on numerous occasions by two or three different doctors that I would never be able to play sport again, 100 percent. I returned to Ireland towards the end of August 2019. It was around the start of 2020 when I got a bit of hope that I could return after seeing doctors in the CUH.” 

And that’s what Leopold did. An amazing journey. He made his comeback against Midleton in July 2020, 12 months on from brain surgery.

“You would be foolish to expect that I would be the same player before what happened in 2019. I started in 2020 then picked up injuries and lost my place in 2021. Got back in 2022 and then this season has been fairytale stuff. I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world that I am still alive. To be back playing for Sars is the stuff of dreams.”