Harlequins' Conor O'Shea kicks shortsight into touch
Harlequins director of rugby Conor O’Shea is looking forward to the new rugby season with renewed clarity thanks to his recent laser eye surgery at Harley Street clinic Advanced Vision Care.
After grappling with the problem of wearing contact lenses on the pitch all his professional career, Conor, who is now Director of Rugby at Harlequins, finally decided to take the leap and have his vision corrected with LASIK Intralase treatment at AVC.
“Poor eyesight is a major handicap for a sportsman, especially if you play such a vigorous contact sport as rugby,” said Conor. “Obviously, wearing glasses is out of the question but even wearing contact lenses you still run the risk of losing one on the pitch.
“This was a problem I faced throughout my professional playing career. On many occasions I‘d have to try and get a lens back in place or wait while a spare was brought on for me. With the adrenalin pumping and dirty hands it is never an easy task”
“I’d thought about having my eyes lasered for quite a while but to be honest, I just didn’t have the nerve. Then a friend had it done at AVC in Harley Street and told me how easy and painless it was and how fantastic the results were, so I thought I should stop dithering and just do it.”
Conor admits he was apprehensive on the day of his surgery but after going through 11 surgical procedures throughout his playing career he knew it would be minor in comparison, and it really was. After an hour and a half he was walking out the door on his way home.
“The recovery time was phenomenal. The next day I was back on the pitch, taking it easy mind, but the day after that I was back to normal.
“I am absolutely over the moon. To wake up in the morning and be able to see perfectly without having to reach for glasses is brilliant. My vision is now better than it ever was with glasses or contact lenses. One eye is now 20/20 and the other is even better than 20/20 – super vision, I think it is called!”
Conor is keen to stress that for a sportsman, laser eye surgery is nothing to do with vanity, it’s all about performance.
“Rugby is a game of visual skills and if you don’t have sharp eyesight and good peripheral vision you’re at a disadvantage, no matter how skilled a player you are. In such a fast-moving sport you need to be able to spot the opportunities ahead in time to react before the next guy. If your eyesight isn’t perfect you risk losing vital seconds that can mean the difference between winning or losing.”
Conor’s surgeon, AVC’s medical director Mr CT Pillai, recommended that he have LASIK Intralase treatment, a highly advanced blade-free procedure which uses a laser to create the flap in the cornea rather than a computer-controlled blade instrument. This treatment allows for superior quality of vision, greater predictability and faster healing, which was crucially important for Conor to get back onto the training pitch as soon as possible.
For this procedure AVC uses the Technolas Perfect Vision z100 excimer laser with iris recognition and dynamic rotational eye tracker, which makes laser surgery exceptionally safe and accurate.
“I can’t praise AVC enough: the whole experience from start to finish was exceptional,” Conor said. “I would say to anyone who’s considered laser eye surgery in the past, don’t just think about it – do it.”
For more information, visit: advancedvisioncare.co.uk
