The pain and gain of Shane
In the Derryman’s understated, laconic way, Shane Duffy is talking about the moment he stepped onto the Gannon Park pitch in Malahide on Sunday — the first time he’d been back to the scene of the freak training ground accident which almost claimed his life in May of 2010.
Having been called up to an extended senior squad by Giovanni Trapattoni, the then 18-year-old centre-half was taking part in a training game against the Irish Juniors when a heavy collision with goalkeeper Adrian Walsh left him flat-out on the ground. The full extent of the damage would only emerge in a startling medical bulletin the following day which told how Duffy had ruptured a liver artery and, after being rushed to the Mater hospital by ambulance, needed life-saving emergency surgery.
A week later, he was discharged and, standing on the steps of the hospital with his parents Brian and Siobhan, he told the waiting media: “I’m just so happy to be alive.”
But he also went on to insist he would be back playing football in four or five months, a prediction which, at the time, seemed wildly optimistic. Indeed, despite an encouraging medical prognosis, the trauma he’d endured made some of us wonder if the pale, shaken figure would ever be able to resume a career in professional football.
Oh we of little faith. Less than two years on, Duffy stands before us again, not just in the whole of his health but as a first-team player at Everton who is now on the brink of his international debut tomorrow at the Aviva Stadium.
Few stories of recovery and resurgence in football are as uplifting. “It’s a long time ago, nearly two years,” he reflected.
“I didn’t know what to think about it at the time because I didn’t know how serious it was at all until I opened the papers. The doctor didn’t tell me because he didn’t really want me to know. My dad kept it quiet then. They just said to take it easy and I’d get back playing in the end.
“And it was about five months after that there I was playing football again. I couldn’t really ask for anything else.”
A big milestone was his first full game back, a friendly for Everton against Sligo Rovers.
“That was my first test. I just remember there was a corner and thinking ‘this is my first one’. But when it was gone I never looked back. And I don’t really think about it now. It’s in the past.
“It was a big injury but these things happen in life and make you stronger. It’s made me stronger as a person, made me a lot more mature and made me think about life. But, for me, I’m just happy now to be playing for Everton and, hopefully for my country.”
Of course, he could have been playing for Northern Ireland. Indeed, he came closer than most, making the bench for a game against Italy but not getting the nod from manager Nigel Worthington which would have tied him to the North.
“I was young then but in my mind — and my mum knows and my dad knows — I’m Irish and I love playing for Ireland. I always wanted to play for Ireland.
“I’m Irish and my whole family is. I have to respect Northern Ireland for giving me the chance to be there. But I didn’t play that game. I’m delighted I didn’t come on because it means I would have had to play for Northern Ireland. These things happen for a reason and I couldn’t be any happier.”
Like his fellow Derryman, close friend and now international room mate James McClean, Duffy’s allegiance to the Republic has exposed him to considerable abuse in the Twittersphere.
“I get it every day, every second,” he says. “It’s just one of those things. They want to put you down because you have left their country because it is their country at the end of the day. You have to be mentally strong. It’s people trying to put you down.
“You just have to move on. I don’t mind. They are not doing harm to me by saying it, it’s my decision and life and I’m playing for my country. They can say what they want. I don’t even bother with them. If they want to keep doing it they can, it’s not affecting me in any way.”
Maybe the knowledge of how close he came to losing everything has steeled him against all challenges?
“Yeah, if you want to put it like that. But at the end of the day I’m just focused on my football, getting on the pitch and doing my best for club and country.
“Poland? It’s a long way away at the minute, to be honest. But if that did come off it would be a dream come true. As a player, stepping on that plane would be the biggest highlight of your career. If it ever happens I will be ready for it and if it doesn’t I will fight on and try to play better.”
And, for obvious reasons, you don’t doubt him for a moment.
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