O’Shea leaves behind season to forget

JOHN O’SHEA has revealed that it was Shay Given who inflicted the injury which wrecked most of the Waterford man’s season at Manchester United.

Of all the Irish players associated with the World Cup play-off defeat in Paris last November, O’Shea had more reason than most to feel the lingering effects of the pain. It was an accidental collision with his own ’keeper which forced the defender out of the game in the Stade de France, and complications arising out of what initially seemed to be a run-of-the-mill ‘dead leg’ subsequently enforced an absence which lasted until the tail end of the season.

“It was Shay who did it to me,” says O’Shea. “His knee just went full force into the middle of my quad muscle. It caused bleeding and because it went so deep, bone cells grew as well, and I became a bit of a physio technician for a while. Calcification started and you just have to wait for it to dissolve because it’s not in a natural place, although eventually it goes away.

“At first, I thought I was going to be back within a week or ten days and next thing the doctor was saying to me that I could be out for six months. It was kind of a strange feeling when, like me, you’ve never really been injured. Was I worried? No, I just knew it was going to take time. Wes Brown’s younger brother was just after having it as well, to the side of his leg which is where you’d normally get dead legs, but because I got it in a strange position, it just took a bit longer.

“Now, I’m definitely gaining with every game I play, I’m feeling sharper and sharper. I obviously got back towards the end of last season, but I was nowhere near fully fit, so I was looking forward to getting back into pre-season and getting games under my belt. My leg is feeling great now so there are no problems.”

O’Shea certainly showed no ill-effects as he captained United to a comprehensive 7-1 demolition of an Airtricity League XI in the opening game at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday.

“It was a very special night, and to entertain the crowd with so many goals was special as well,” he says. “At the end of my career — hopefully in a good few years — it will be something very special to look back on, the new stadium and being captain of Manchester United on the night. Might I’ll captain a side here again? You never know. That would be another huge honour.”

O’Shea says that he and his United colleagues had “nothing but huge praise” for the new stadium. His manager Alex Ferguson echoed those sentiments, even going so far as to describe the on-site medical facilities for the players as the best he’d ever seen and worth emulating at Old Trafford. For O’Shea, however, there was one odd little reminder of the old Lansdowne Road.

“It was amazing because that wind still comes in (over the shallow Havelock Square end),” he smiles. “Some things don’t go away. I think the atmosphere in the ground picked up a lot more in that second half. I think initially people were probably looking around in awe because it is a special stadium to look at it, not just on the outside but inside too. But when the Mexican wave got going and when we got the goals as well, the noise was definitely loud. And I’ll be telling the boys to make sure we keep the ball against Argentina because it’s a big pitch. Maybe I’ll tell Trapattoni to tighten it up a bit!”

O’Shea turns his to thoughts the start of the Premiership season, for which United will be expecting to parade a couple of the new faces who impressed the crowd in Dublin.

“Chris (Smalling) will definitely be a fantastic addition to the squad,” he says of his new fellow defender. “He’s a natural athlete and nice and composed on the ball as well. Chicharito (Javier Hernandez)? Yeah, he’ll get goals. When the chances come he seems to be in the right place but also his movement looks fantastic. Hopefully he can just get his fitness back. You saw the goals he got in the World Cup too; I’ve already congratulated him for the goal he got against France!”

SUNDAY gives United an early chance to lay down a marker for the season ahead, as they take on champions Chelsea in the Community Shield.

“We want to win it but gaining fitness is the key, especially for the World Cup lads coming back,” O’Shea observes. “After losing it last year on penalties, it would be nice to get one over on them but, no matter what they say, the be-all and end-all will be at the end of May 2011. They won’t really remember the Community Shield then.”

O’Shea reckons the “usual names” will contest the title again, although he fully expects the club Fergie calls the noisy neighbours to be knocking on the door.

“City? The players they’re signing seem to be of fantastic quality. They’re definitely going to be there or thereabouts. But it’s whether they can all mix together quickly..”