Last November Ryan O'Dwyer made what he called 'the worst decision of his life'.
Spontaneously, he and a friend decided to make a trip to the Rugby World Cup final in London.
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Stopping in Birmingham for the night on the way, the two visited a nightclub in the city.
Standing outside chatting to a bouncer, the Dublin hurler received an unprovoked punch to the head from behind. The result was a fractured skull, a broken jaw and bleeding to the brain.
In an interview with the Herald nearly five months later, O'Dwyer conveyed the 'life and death' nature of the situation.
On Saturday, O'Dywer made his return to inter-county action as Dublin strolled past Wexford at a sodden Croke Park.
O'Dwyer stepped onto the pitch as a late second half substitute, replacing Darragh O'Connell with just over 20 minutes remaining.
The Tipp native would get on the scoresheet too, knocking over a point from range with just three minutes left.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, O'Dwyer described getting to chance to play Championship hurling once more like 'making his debut again'.
I went through every emotion there was to go through because at times you'd be like 'yeah don't worry I'll be back' and then other times it was like 'f*ck it I'm not going to get back'.
At times I was ready to throw in the towel but the support I had from my team-mates, like they'd be coming over for a water break and they'd be going 'that's it Ryan well done'.
With the game in injury time, there was a worrying moment for O'Dwyer as he was involved in a nasty clash with Wexford half-back Diarmuid O'Keeffe. As there were just moments remaining and Dublin ahead by more than double scores, O'Dwyer left the game. As he walked off, he received some joking words from his former Dublin manager Anthony Daly who was on sideline duty for RTÉ.
It's good to get them and see that I can actually take it, it was a bang on the head and they took me off but the match was over.
If there had been 10 minutes left I'd have stayed on but it was a precaution. As I walked off Anthony Daly was there 'ah you're f**king soft'.
Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
