O'Connor suffered her second Lisfranc injury in consecutive seasons in 2025, a relatively rare fracture of a bone in the midfoot.

Throw in the hushed-up hamstring tear suffered the weekend before last year's All-Ireland final defeat to Galway and you could understand her frustration.

But the 30-year-old shrugged off the run of bad luck, acknowledging that while the timing of the hamstring injury was terrible, she at least picked up the other two injuries at favourable times of the season.

"In the 2024 All-Ireland final, I picked up a Lisfranc fracture in my right foot and then last year I picked one up in my left foot," said O'Connor. "So, pure bad luck, like terrible luck. They couldn't believe it when I went to see the consultant about it. He was like, 'This just doesn't happen'. So, yeah, just bad luck, couldn't do anything about it. Another long eight months.

"I don't know if they've ever encountered anyone that had it in both feet but, as I say, it was just bad luck. I was looking for a reason why it happened but it's not down to a weakness or anything. The first time, someone fell on me and the second time someone stood on me and pushed me at the same time "There was nothing really you could do about that. It was a pure trauma injury, both times."

The hamstring injury came out of the blue also.

"The Saturday before last year's All-Ireland final, I actually tore my hamstring," she said at the announcement that PwC has extended its partnership with the GAA/GPA and Camogie Association by three years.

"We tried to keep it in-house as much as possible. I togged out on the day but I wouldn't say I contributed very much. We took a chance and it just didn't work out."

Around 10 months on, the Cork team looks a lot different.

"I think we lost 14 from the panel, and of those, I'd say the majority, if not all, would have had one or two All-Ireland medals," said O'Connor.

Form and results naturally nosedived. Cork finished a point above relegation in the National League and lost a Munster opener to Tipp. But the seven weeks that followed the Munster exit were put to good use.

Revenge wins over Galway and Tipp have left Cork needing just a draw this Sunday to advance to the last four.

"Anyone that thought we were going to come back from an All-Ireland final, missing 14 from your previous year and just continue as it was, was probably a bit delusional," said O'Connor. "That was never going to happen.

"But what we now have is players who haven't had much game time in the past but who played all our League games, and our Munster and All-Ireland games this year. You go with it, that's sport."

Another Cork icon, Ashling Thompson, could potentially figure this weekend after an elbow injury in March that required surgery.

"She had a desperate injury as well, I think throughout the League anything that could have went wrong for us did go wrong for us," said O'Connor. "She's been back in training for a bit. I'm not sure if she'll feature at the weekend but she possibly could."

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