The Wanderer returns

JOEY O’BRIEN didn’t expect to be in Dublin this week. After all, he has only been back playing first-team football at Bolton Wanderers this last three weeks.

The 15 months prior to that were spent largely on an exercise bike at Bolton’s training centre recovering from injury and watching the rest of the first-team squad being put through their paces out on the pitch. Saturday’s naturally, he spent in the stands.

“Fifteen months is a long, long time,” he says with a pinch of understatement. “The main thing is that it’s in the past now. My knee is fine, I’m back playing in the Premier League and the UEFA Cup. That’s all that counts.

“I appreciate it that little bit more because it was nearly taken away from me. I spent a lot of time looking at matches and watching the boys train through a window so that was frustrating. I got through it and I think I’m a stronger person for it and hopefully a better player.”

The injury was one that required surgery in the US and, as is often the case, it came just when his career was about to hit fifth gear — having returned from a loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday, he made 33 appearances for Sam Allardyce in the 2005/06 season.

Things were beginning to happen at international level too. Steve Staunton gave him 90 minutes against Sweden in his first game in charge and he flew to the Algarve with the rest of the squad for a training camp two months later.

Since then, Ireland has been far from his thoughts so he admits to being shocked when his brother rang him from Dublin last week to tell him he was back in the international loop.

“It’s been a long time for me so it’s a fresh start and hopefully it’ll be a good one. I wasn’t really thinking about the Irish team. I knew there were games coming up but I hadn’t thought about who he was going to name. I was just concentrating on playing for Bolton.”

His first game in 12 months was a reserve team outing against Manchester City in late August and a few more run-outs against the likes of Radcliffe Borough followed before his recall to the big time.

Nicky Hunt was the man in possession of the right-back’s jersey in his absence but O’Brien replaced the Englishman for the last 15 minutes of the UEFA Cup tie against Rabotnicki in Macedonia.

He has played five of the last six games since. The only cloud on the horizon is the club’s next-from-bottom spot in the league table.

Still, on a personal level it has been encouraging stuff, especially considering the fact that ‘Little Sammy’ Lee has replaced ‘Big Sam’ in the head office.

“The last five games I’ve played, that’s all. It was great to just get back into the team. We’ve played a couple of hard games so I have done alright. It’s up to the gaffer at Bolton to say whether I’m playing well or not but, he’s playing me, so I must be doing something right.”

A right back by trade this past while, he is listed as a midfielder on the club’s official website and Steve Staunton has even talked about him playing as a centre-back if circumstances demand it.

His last posting at the centre of defence was during his U-19 days with Ireland but where would he like to end up playing himself? Defence or the middle of the park?

“I don’t know. I’ve played right-back, Sam Allardyce obviously saw me as a right-back. I’ve played centre midfield but you don’t care where you are playing as long as you are. That’s my attitude. Once you are in the 11.”

After the last 15 months, who can blame him for that?