Club football a stretch as years of injuries take their toll on Seamus O’Shea

So last Saturday week, he was in the stands. It was a new experience, a weird experience for a man who's never known life outside the heart of it but watching his old team-mates was just as exciting. Seeing them win was emotional. "Myself and Chris Barrett were at the game together and it was great, it was pretty emotional afterwards just watching the lads because you'd just be thrilled for them all." Another thing on their side is the advent of remote working, a lifesaver of a phenomenon that, as a man based in Dublin, could have saved him lots of hassle and plenty of injuries over the years. "It would have been great if it had happened five or six years ago - not Covid - but if working from home could have happened five or six years ago. "I'd imagine it has been hugely beneficial. There are a few lads in Dublin, but at least they are able to tip away home on a Monday night for training on a Tuesday, and work from home on a Tuesday. "You kind of get used to it. You get used to being tired, and travelling. The only thing I found difficult was that as you get older, you're picking up more injuries, and the travel becomes difficult. If you're sitting in a bus for seven hours on a Tuesday to train for an hour-and-a-half, that's just not good for the body." Here's living proof. "When you're trying to manage injuries on top of that, it's just very difficult. If you're not injured, and you're feeling good, then you'll get over it because it's just tiredness, and you can manage it." It's no secret that Seamus' younger brother struggled last time out against Dublin, but with Tyrone in his sights, this man is backing Aidan for a "big game" on the big day. "As a player you want to play well and you want to contribute and be a part of it. And when you don't play as well as you'd like or as well as you're capable of you're going to be disappointed in yourself. At the same time Aidan is captain of the team and has been around a long time so I think the over-riding emotion was that he was just thrilled for everybody and then disappointed that he wasn't able to help out a bit more or play as well as he would have liked. "But that happens and, to be fair, it probably hasn't happened to Aidan too often in his career. "Like any player you just want to get back to playing well. It happened me back in '16 where I had a poor second half and the whole country was probably thinking I was going to be dropped for the Final but, in fairness to Rochy, he stuck with me. Yeah, it fairly focuses the mind. You want to put in a big performance and try to help the team as much as you can. It's the same for any player that has been in that position and I'm sure he'll be fine and there's a big game coming in him."