O’Brien determined to grab second chance

All around Gannon Park in Malahide, the atmosphere is as serene and as low-key as you might expect of a training session for a forgettable pre-season friendly against Serbia.

Until, that is, Joey O’Brien starts talking. It’s difficult not to be immediately engrossed.

For everyone else, the game in Belgrade almost feels like an after-thought after the general summer of sport that was in it. Not for O’Brien though. And not for the usual reasons.

This isn’t so much a call-up as an important milestone in a career that had looked finished. In the four years since the West Ham defender’s last cap, he regularly wondered whether he would ever play again, let alone for his country.

His is a story of three complicated operations, a lot of doubt but, ultimately, persistence, faith... and a piece of his kneecap taken out.

At one point, the problem looked so bad that Dr Richard Steadman — the famed surgeon who has saved many top athletes’ careers — refused to operate on it.

“It was a nightmare. I was out for two-and-a-half years and had three knee operations. I thought I was going to have to pack it in so many times but thank God I got back.

“[The problem] was the prognosis on my knee and the surgery involved.

“When I went to [Dr Richard] Steadman in the USA, he did not think I had much of a chance of getting back by losing part of my kneecap because he did not think it was going to be stable enough. So he didn’t want to do the operation.

“He said he’d never seen a knee like it in an athlete at my level.

“I went to Andy Williams [in London] and he said, ‘look, you’re not going to be able to play without it. Let’s hope you can play after it’. That was the shot I had. Basically he took a hammer and chisel and chiselled it off.

“From there, I did months and months and months of rehab. Years of rehab.

“I went over to a guy called Bill Knowles, who is a rehab specialist.

“I met him through Andy who recommended him. I researched him by reading an autobiography of a rugby player. He basically saved his career.”

It seems Knowles, who also worked wonders with Richard Hill, Austin Healey and Michael Owen, did the same for O’Brien.

“At that time I was in dire straits and nobody really thought I was going to get back. He gave me hope and some fresh ideas and, luckily, it worked wonders.

O’Brien, however, doesn’t just put it down to luck.

“[Knowles] basically saved my career. This, plus my faith in God, kept me going through the dark, dark times.

“I was always a religious person. I was brought up in it by my ma and da, going to Mass every week. I still go to Mass every week.

“I think, without it, I would not be back.”

Every time O’Brien speaks, he bows his head and furrows his brow. The apparent solemnity, however, shouldn’t obscure his evident joy at being involved with Ireland again.

“I’m delighted to be back in. Delighted.

“I think stuff was said in the past, it’s gone... I love playing for my country. I’ve a picture in my flat of Noel O’Reilly giving me my first cap — God rest him.”

“At the end of the day, after all the shit that happened me, I got a break.”

Now, he’s determined to maximise it.