TFC's Shane O'Neill eager to make up for lost time after injury

Injuries are never timely, but the one suffered by Toronto FC’s Shane O’Neil earlier this season couldn’t have come at a worse time for the veteran defender.  

A series of injuries and spells of uneven form limited O’Neill to only 10 starts in 14 MLS games totalling 939 minutes in 2023. Compare that to his first season in Toronto the previous year when he was a solid workhorse (21 starts in 26 games, 1,895 minutes).  

But new coach John Herdman still saw something in O’Neill and named him to the team’s player leadership group, which also included captain Jonathan Osorio, ahead of the 2024 regular season. 

O’Neill, 30, responded to the challenge and seemed reborn under Herdman, playing on the right side of the team’s new-look back three. The Ireland-born defender started in each of the first seven games of the MLS season, helping the Reds record four clean sheets along the way. Defensively sound, he was also routinely bombing forward in support of the attack.