Carr making up for lost time

STEPHEN CARR confessed yesterday that he was still 30% below his best despite twelve months of regular football following his serious knee injury.

Surgery on his damaged patella kept him out of the game for a year and cost him a place in Ireland's World Cup squad and he ruefully reflected on his on-going struggle to put his trauma behind him.

"It took the whole of last year to get over my injury. What I am concerned about now is to get ready for next year to be honest and to make sure I get a good pre-season," said Carr.

Carr's injury was a huge set-back, not just on a personal level.

His absence hit Ireland hard despite the good form in the World Cup of Steve Finnan and Gary Kelly for, at his best, Carr was world-class.

To put things into perspective he was recently voted the best right-back in the Premiership by his fellow professionals and named in the team of the season.

But the 26 years old Dubliner was forthright in assessing his own performances.

"It was a great honour (to be voted into the Premiership team) but personally, for me, I'm not back to where I want to be. That is something I'm going to face when I get home to prepare for next season," said Carr.

"I'm not happy with the way I've been playing, I can play a lot better but I'm sure I'll get back there. I'm at the best I've been since the injury but I am not feeling as strong as I did beforehand.

"I reckon I am still 30% short of where I want to be. That's perhaps not great after a year but I found it difficult to get my fitness and my sharpness back for whatever reason."

"I don't feel as fit as I was before. Why, I don't know, maybe it took more out of me than I thought, but it's just taken longer than I thought it would."

Many players make the mistake of taking on too heavy a workload on return from serious injury.

Carr did not accept that this was the case but he has looked good in training with Ireland this week and he made it clear his hunger was there.

"I'm really looking forward to getting involved in these two games so that I can really get back into it and try to get back to my best."

Carr played for Ireland in their European ties against Georgia and Albania and also in the friendly against Norway in April.

It is certain he will start again tomorrow against Albania at Lansdowne Road and he predicted a very different Irish approach from that which produced a scoreless draw against Albania in Tirana.

"A lot depends on how we approach the game. We must not allow their wing-backs to get too involved by pushing them back."

He admitted that missing the World Cup finals has left him more determined than ever to reach the finals of the European Championship in Portugal next year.

The pain of watching the tournament in Japan and South Korea was too much for him to bear so he had seen relatively little of it.

He declined to speculate on his future despite on-going rumours that Arsenal were interested in recruiting him.

But he said that Spurs' disappointing form late in the season had hit them hard and if they failed to qualify for Europe next season then he would consider looking for a move.

He suggested the players had left themselves down by not performing as well as they could but one of the brighter developments of the season was the arrival of Robbie Keane at White Hart Lane.

"Robbie did very well in his first season. He gave the place a big lift, the crowd have taken to him and they love him and he'll only get better the more he plays for the club."

Carr and Keane are in the unusual position of having their club coach, Chris Hughton, working with them at club and international level and he said:

"I have been working with Chris for years now, he knows me inside out and I know him and his coaching as well. He's a great help and he's always there for me as well if I need to have a chat with him so that's been good for me.

"He's like Brian (Kerr) and between them they have so much enthusiasm which isn't a bad thing, it's what you need out there on the training pitch, and Chris has been brilliant for me to be fair, at club level and now at international level."

Carr waxed lyrical when he referred to Damian Duff, saying: "I couldn't separate Damien from any other player I've played against as a full-back and I think that's how highly I think of him because I've played against the likes of Giggs, Overmars, Kewell and Figo. Damien is up there with them all, he's as good as them, he's a great player.

"Given his age he's going to become an even better player, especially if he gets to a bigger club. He is just electrifying and very hard to deal with."

Finally he spelt out Ireland's attitude to the upcoming championship matches when he said: "The lads are looking for six points, nothing less.

It would have been nice to have got six points from our last two games against Albania and Georgia, but we rode our luck a little bit against Albania and in getting four points we did well.

"With two games at home where we don't have to travel we have to be looking at getting six points, nothing less will do."