ASHLING THOMPSON HAS revealed the “brutal” pain that followed her horror elbow injury earlier this year, describing it as far worse than her previous ACL rupture.

The decorated Cork midfielder looks set to feature in her 11th Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie final on Sunday after recovering from what was initially billed as a season-ending injury.

The six-time champion suffered extensive elbow damage during a League tie against Kilkenny in Freshford last March.

She reckons that being blessed with ‘good healing powers’ helped her recover in time to line out in Cork’s last All-Ireland series group game against Waterford.

A subsequent hamstring tear has cast fresh doubt on her availability for this Sunday’s final against holders Galway but Thompson indicated that she should be okay.

“So far so good,” she said. “In fairness, training has been going really well and we have managed it very well. The medical team has been brilliant.”

The Milford icon, who was first called into a Cork senior squad as a 16-year-old in 2006, has dealt extensively with medics throughout the season.

Asked what a dislocated arm and broken elbow feels like, Thompson, who previously suffered ACL damage in 2022, painted a dark picture.

“I’d rather do two ACLs at the same time, to be honest with you,” said Thompson. “It was absolutely brutal. I couldn’t even describe the pain. A complete freak (injury).

“The game was on up in Freshford in Kilkenny. So, usually in Nowlan Park you’d have medics and stuff like that, so that took a bit of time because we didn’t have the same availability that day.

So you’re kind of hanging on for pain relief for the bones of an hour and a half, which was not the greatest. In fairness, Kilkenny were absolutely brilliant, even their physios and everything came straight over and tried to help as much as they could.

“We finally got to St Luke’s but it (the pain) was absolutely brutal. Of course, me being naive, I thought they’d reduce it. I had a break as well so I just thought, ‘Oh, broken bone, six weeks, I’ll be back then.’

“But that’s not the case. I had fully dislocated it, so there was tissue repair and everything that needed to be done. But I never expected surgery, so that was obviously a very upsetting phone call to get, especially being caught off guard.

“After the surgery then was horrific, the pain was again incredible. I had a nerve blocker, but once that wore off it was brutal, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, to be honest.”

Ashling Thompson in action during Cork's semi-final victory over Tipp. Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO

In the absence of key performers like Pamela and Katrina Mackey, Aoife Healy, Laura Treacy and Hannah Looney – eight of the 20 that featured in last year’s final loss to Galway are absent, for various reasons – Thompson’s return and leadership around the middle third has been vital.

“Initially, at the start of the season, you’re getting to know brand-new faces,” she said. “That took a long time. Playing in the league, I think for the majority we were playing with three of the starting 15 so that was extremely hard, even in terms of how we wanted to play the game.

“You’re getting frustrated and I suppose you’re taking that frustration out of last year’s final too, which isn’t really fair.

“I think we came together after the league, and especially the first round of the Munster championship, after getting knocked out by Tipperary, and just said, ‘Look, we have to be really fair here to the girls. We can’t dictate in terms of how we want to play or how we want to do things because this is a whole new group, a whole new camp’.

“They deserve to be there as much as we do and they deserve every opportunity in terms of how they want to evolve the game. And I think that was an important thing, and our game has evolved massively this season. We’re not playing the same way we did in the last two or three years, so that’s nice. It’s nice to have that freshness in terms of keeping the dynamic different and keeping the opposition guessing.”

But Thompson had her own personal battle to fight along the way and just getting back onto the field was a difficult process, one that’s not fully complete.

“It was very intense,” the prison officer said of the rehab. “Three to four times a day, and obviously I was out of work. I ended up setting up a home gym because I didn’t have the patience to be getting into my car three or four times a day to go to a gym.

“Initially, the main goal was to get your full extension back in the arm, that’s the main thing, that full extension, so that was tedious. I’d say I won’t get it back, anyway, for a good while, but it is hanging in there.

“Obviously there was an element of fear in terms of you’re nearly afraid that it would pop out if you swung one way or the other. Once I started pucking, you get your confidence back quite quick. It felt, I suppose, a lot of restriction at the start, especially when hitting on my open side, and just getting that mobility back.

“Once I threw myself into my first full-contact session, I had my first fall, which I didn’t actually remember. One of the girls told me afterwards, and I was buzzing. Once you get all those firsts out of the way, I have not thought twice about it since.”

Winning a seventh All-Ireland medal, and preventing old rivals Galway from completing back-to-back successes, would be sweet in the circumstances. The bookies have installed Cork as significant favourites though Thompson doesn’t agree.

“They’re the title holders and we have a lot of new faces this year,” she said. “So, I mean, by right, they are the favourites going in. They have a lot of experience and even a lot of their younger girls have been there now over the course of the last few years. So it’s nice being the underdog, there’s no pressure.”