Daniel O'Connell on winning All-Ireland with Cork U20s and how injuries impacted his senior career with Rebels

When the Cork U20 footballers famously claimed All-Ireland glory in 2019, Daniel O’Connell was at the very top of his game.

The Kanturk player was a key figure in helping the Rebels go all the way. It was his first taste of inter-county football, but his performances helped him briefly make the senior panel.

“I was called in late to the Cork U20 panel, so it was nice to win the Munster and All-Ireland in the same year and look, in fairness to Keith Ricken, he was great to everyone,” O’Connell says.

“We had about 35 to 40 lads training most nights. He gave everyone a go, everyone a chance, it was a great year. We beat the top teams.

“I suppose when we kind of set out our goals at the start of the year in 2019, the objective of every team and player, look, you want to win the Munster and All-Ireland and when you finally do that it’s great. It actually pays off because you’re training three or four nights a week.

“When you get the medals at the end of the day, it’s great, look, you make lifelong friends too along the way and I’d still be in contact with most of the players.

“We were very close, every player kind of bought into it from the get-go really. Every player got on. We all kind of bonded together.” 

O’Connell is a talented GAA player with Kanturk. Growing up, it was the small ball that he would have preferred. He made the most of his chance though when he got an opportunity to play football for Cork.

But injuries would then take over.

“I always liked hurling more, to be honest with you. I just got a good run with Kanturk and I got seen that way. I suppose when you’re kind of new in the Cork set-up, it’s all new, you don’t know what’s going to happen.

“I grabbed my chance with the U20s and then I got the call to move up to the senior panel. Killian O’Hanlon picked up an injury and the door opened for me.

“Unfortunately in 2020, we were back training with Kanturk after lockdown and I tore the cruciate one day, so I got the surgery then in August.

“I was out for about a year. I came back from that then and Keith Ricken was announced as the Cork senior football manager for the 2022 season.

“I was playing in the Sigerson Cup with MTU Cork. Look, the injuries didn’t really help me, but that’s just kind of part of the game too, that’s kind of why you play it.

“I was going well enough with the Cork seniors and then I actually fractured a bone in my foot about March time, so I was out for a few months then with that.

“Then towards the end of 2022, before Kanturk’s Premier Intermediate football final, we had a challenge game two weeks prior to the final, and I just got a blow into the side of the knee and the cruciate went, so I was out for a year again with that.” 

Injuries are part and parcel of sport, but the timing didn’t help O’Connell. Arguably if things went right for him, he could have been a crucial player for the Cork senior footballers.

“When you’re out for so long with an injury, I suppose mentally it is tough, but you have to look on the bright side too. I am healthy in other ways, so you just have to put the head down and drive on.

“The injuries have definitely helped me mentally and stuff. If you have any other small injuries, I don’t look at it as bad, because I suppose the cruciate is probably one of the worst injuries you can get."