Delaney relishing his days in green
At one stage during the players’ mixed zone in Malahide yesterday, he rolled up his shorts to reveal the long-term results of what seemed an innocuous dead leg in training last summer. Running all the way down his left hip to his knee, Delaney has a scar 15 inches long and two inches wide. But then he’s also lucky to have a limb at all.
The dead leg turned out to be compartment syndrome, a compression of tissue which can require amputation.
“That was worst-case scenario,” he said.
“There was a distinct possibility I could have lost part of the thigh muscle... my left leg was wasted away, it was about the width of my arm.
“When the surgeon is talking about just getting you back walking, it does hit you. You’re that close to losing the lot of it, you do appreciate it.”
After a gap of over two years between his second cap against Poland and third and fourth against Uruguay and then the North, Delaney has an outside opportunity of starting against Macedonia. ‘Comeback’ isn’t quite the word.
“There’s a good chance (of starting against Macedonia) but the only thing I’m worrying about is Scotland. There’s no point getting ahead of yourself. It will be a step up in intensity from Tuesday. A trophy is at stake, albeit the Carling Cup.
“I’m happy to be here. Days like this, you have a shelf life.”
Simon Cox is also ready to step up. But not just against Scotland. Rather the more immediate challenge of that first song in front of the squad.
“I’ve got to do it on Saturday because that’s when everyone comes over. I’m going to sing Otis Redding, ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’. But I’ve done it before, every club I’ve gone to, so I don’t really worry about it anymore.
“Darren O’Dea is funny. He gets more nervous watching people sing than he does singing himself.”
Cox certainly doesn’t seem like the type to be afflicted by nerves. The young West Brom striker clearly isn’t afraid to express himself.
He illustrated that in his first cap against the North, slamming home the shot that finished a 5-0 win.
“I didn’t think I was going to start so I just went out and enjoyed myself. I thought I played well,” he says.
Although he first caught public attention with that curled strike against Tottenham Hotspur in April, he had actually been on the FAI’s radar since last season, when he first made it known that he would like to play for his grandmother’s country.
“My dad’s mum was born in Galway and a couple of my cousins were at the game. I’ve probably got a busload of them coming on Sunday.”
There wasn’t too much Irishness in his house growing up.
“Only around parties, when the music would come out after my Nana had a few sherries.”
In the meantime, he’s trying to learn the anthem.
“I had it on YouTube. I didn’t see it on the big screen at the match. Coming towards the end of the song I saw the words and thought, ‘I could have got away with it there!’”
Again, Delaney will know the true meaning of those words.
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