Duffy "just so happy to be alive"
Credit:
Shane Duffy was released from the Mater Hospital at noon on Friday following his miraculous recovery after rupturing the blood supply to his liver in what medical staff described as 'freak accident' while on international duty last week.
Duffy was quick to thank everyone involved in saving his life, before proclaiming he was “just so happy to be alive,” while speaking to journalists huddled at the entrance to the hospital which was home to Duffy since last weekend.
“I am just here to thank all the medical staff who saved my life. Gerry McEntee, Alan Byrne and John O'Byrne saved my life.”
“I just want to thank everyone in this hospital and everything they’ve done, they saved my life. This time last week I was in there in an operation and that, scary times. I just want to thank everyone - it’s been a crazy time, a crazy week,” he said.
For someone who lost as much blood as was reported, in an incident that looked so innocuous, Duffy has shown remarkable progress.
“I’m getting there now. The pain is gone a bit, well it’s easing off and hopefully I can - in the next couple of months - recover well and get there and get back playing.”
Duffy is still amazed at what he has been through in the last seven days, having little or no recollection of the collision with goalkeeper Adrian Walsh that led to this remarkable situation.
“I really didn’t know - when it happened it was a blur. [I] woke up Friday night, operation done and that. But dad was telling me – mum and dad were telling me – ‘you nearly died last night,’ […] crazy like. But as I said, everyone that was in there, top class.”
“[I] can’t thank the FAI enough - and the nurses and staff. Alan [Byrne] and John [O’Byrne], the first two to get to me and realise how serious it was, [I’m] just so happy to be alive.”
During his stay in the Mater, Duffy was greeted regularly by team-mates and well-wishers from the FAI. Giovanni Trapattoni and Robbie Keane were up a couple of times and at one stage fourteen players turned up to visit the Everton centre-half. Duffy remembers he was “speechless” when Keane and Trapattoni came to visit.
“When he walked in, I didn’t know because I was still sleeping and to see the manager and Robbie there, Robbie’s a top lad. The day before they all came, about fourteen of them. [I] couldn’t ask for any more,” he said.
“All the lads, everyone has been so supportive. I can’t get over how much people care about it and that,” he said.
Duffy, still uncertain of being cleared to play competitively for the Republic of Ireland following his decision not to play for Northern Ireland, has targeted “hopefully […] four to five months”, as a return date to football.
However his immediate plans are to take stock of the situation, and spend time “back home, and hopefully get away for a while on a holiday and then recover in July to October.”
“I can’t really think now but, I’ll go home and think about everything,” he added.
Duffy was quick to thank everyone involved in saving his life, before proclaiming he was “just so happy to be alive,” while speaking to journalists huddled at the entrance to the hospital which was home to Duffy since last weekend.
“I am just here to thank all the medical staff who saved my life. Gerry McEntee, Alan Byrne and John O'Byrne saved my life.”
“I just want to thank everyone in this hospital and everything they’ve done, they saved my life. This time last week I was in there in an operation and that, scary times. I just want to thank everyone - it’s been a crazy time, a crazy week,” he said.
For someone who lost as much blood as was reported, in an incident that looked so innocuous, Duffy has shown remarkable progress.
“I’m getting there now. The pain is gone a bit, well it’s easing off and hopefully I can - in the next couple of months - recover well and get there and get back playing.”
Duffy is still amazed at what he has been through in the last seven days, having little or no recollection of the collision with goalkeeper Adrian Walsh that led to this remarkable situation.
“I really didn’t know - when it happened it was a blur. [I] woke up Friday night, operation done and that. But dad was telling me – mum and dad were telling me – ‘you nearly died last night,’ […] crazy like. But as I said, everyone that was in there, top class.”
“[I] can’t thank the FAI enough - and the nurses and staff. Alan [Byrne] and John [O’Byrne], the first two to get to me and realise how serious it was, [I’m] just so happy to be alive.”
During his stay in the Mater, Duffy was greeted regularly by team-mates and well-wishers from the FAI. Giovanni Trapattoni and Robbie Keane were up a couple of times and at one stage fourteen players turned up to visit the Everton centre-half. Duffy remembers he was “speechless” when Keane and Trapattoni came to visit.
“When he walked in, I didn’t know because I was still sleeping and to see the manager and Robbie there, Robbie’s a top lad. The day before they all came, about fourteen of them. [I] couldn’t ask for any more,” he said.
“All the lads, everyone has been so supportive. I can’t get over how much people care about it and that,” he said.
Duffy, still uncertain of being cleared to play competitively for the Republic of Ireland following his decision not to play for Northern Ireland, has targeted “hopefully […] four to five months”, as a return date to football.
However his immediate plans are to take stock of the situation, and spend time “back home, and hopefully get away for a while on a holiday and then recover in July to October.”
“I can’t really think now but, I’ll go home and think about everything,” he added.
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