Henry Shefflin has explained the thinking behind his decision to hold a press conference to announce his retirement.

Team-mates like JJ Delaney and Tommy Walsh had let a statement do their talking but the media would have wanted more from hurling's most decorated player.

"The reason for it was I didn't want people pulling me left, right and centre," he says in an interview in today's Irish Independent.

"The media have always been good to me and I wanted everyone to have a fair crack of the whip. I just felt that by doing it this way, people would leave me alone after. The release of a statement just wouldn't have been enough, because there had been too much of a build-up. I knew that.

"I also knew that if I didn't talk, people might be saying 'Was it this?' or 'Was it that?', drawing their own conclusions."

As he rides off into the inter-county sunset, Henry is looking forward to helping Ballyhale Shamrocks defend their county, provincial and All-Ireland titles.

"I spoke to Tommy Walsh last week, just hopping a ball really. 'What's retirement like?' I asked. And Tommy was saying how glad he was to have the club to go back to.

"Just to still get that buzz coming up to matches. And I enjoyed it so much with the club this year anyway, there was not a chance I was going to give it up.

"I'm very fortunate too in that I'm going back in now into a very competitive club environment. I'm not going back just to be put out to graze for a year or two.

"I'm going back in to keep competing for honours. That arena is still going to be there for me."

The 36-year-old also has an autobiography, due to be released in the autumn, to occupy his mind in the coming weeks.

"The thing I want to try and get across in the book is 'This is who I am!'

"I like to think it will be a very honest book and that people will see that what I got was, largely, down to hard work.

"I mean sometimes that hard work backfired on me and I ended up in trouble because of it, but my story is all about that work. I mean injuries became a major part of it too. I had four career-threatening injuries that were just kicks into the ribs each time. For three Christmases in a row I was injured.

"But I like to think that I learned something from every one of those experiences that will stand to me in the next phase of my life now."

Tweet

Most Read Stories