Galway star David Burke relishing All-Ireland club final shot after fast-tracking cruciate recovery

“At full-time inside I was getting a rub and the boys were looking over at me. I said I’d stay going as long as I could. I don’t think they wanted me to come off either, ‘Stay out there as long as you can’."

Crocked with a long-term injury last spring, David Burke now has an All-Ireland club final coming up in the new year.

Having suffered a cruciate ligament injury in March, the 33-year-old had already defied the odds by getting back on the field as a late sub in both the Galway county semi-final and final but fast-forward another seven weeks and he went the full distance as St Thomas’s saw off hot favourites Ballygunner on penalties after a rip-roaring All-Ireland semi-final on Saturday night in Portlaoise.

“I wouldn’t have imagined being here coming up to Christmas,” admitted Burke. “All that was in my head was get back for the knockouts for the club. I still believed that the boys were going to get there regardless of who we were missing.”

He added: “At full-time inside I was getting a rub and the boys were looking over at me. I said I’d stay going as long as I could. I don’t think they wanted me to come off either, ‘Stay out there as long as you can’.

“I think it was the same for everyone, you could see there lads were cramping up and it was just a matter of getting to the ruck ball and the breaking ball.”

Having been off it in a number of All-Ireland semi-finals - the six-in-a-row Galway champions had lost four of their last five - they certainly brought some grunt to this encounter, with James Regan netting in just the second minute.

Ballygunner looked to have seized control of the game with two goals of their own by the ninth minute through Patrick Fitzgerald and Dessie Hutchinson but Thomas’s stuck at it and led 1-10 to 2-5 at half-time having played with the breeze.

The Waterford champions pushed ahead in the second half but five times Conor Cooney pulled the game level, while in extra time Thomas’s pulled back a three-point deficit and looked set for the win following Eanna Burke’s late point before Ballygunner sub Billy O’Keeffe sent it to penalties.

O’Keeffe and Hutchinson then saw their efforts saved by Gerald Kelly, while Fintan Burke was also denied by Stephen O’Keeffe, but in the end Evan Duggan stepped up to rattle home the winning penalty.

The Peterswell outfit had been denied in cruel circumstances by a late TJ Reid free for Ballyhale Shamrock in a semi-final almost two years ago, so perhaps they had earned their slice luck this time.

“I think when you get to this stage it’s small margins and the good teams will punish you and that’s what Ballyhale did,” Burke reflected. “At the top level you need to put teams away.

“Look, we had a little bit of luck today, got the right side of it I suppose and it was work rate that got us there.

“Last year we just didn’t perform, didn’t turn up and Dunloy were the better team on the day and we hold our hands up, we were poor. We have to take that criticism on the chin.

“We went away hurt. We had to go back and try and win Galway obviously but to get back here now and get to the All-Ireland final, it’s an unbelievable achievement."