Brady keen to end miserable season on a high
The former Manchester United tyro hit the ground running at the start of his maiden voyage in the Premier League, scoring four times for the Tigers in the first two months, but he was already playing through the pain barrier even then and now, after undergoing double hernia and double groin operations, he’s determined to confound predictions that he wouldn’t play football again before the summer.
“I thought I’d be out for the season,” Brady admits, “but I’m a couple of weeks ahead of my rehab now and we have the FA semi-final on Sunday against Sheffield United so, hopefully, if we get through that, I’ll be back in contention for the final.
“If I can get fit for the Everton game on May 11, that’ll have me in good stead. There’s international games coming up as well, which could give me a bit of game time under my belt.
“[Being injured] is a nightmare. I hate sitting around every week watching them getting ready for a game or going out training on the pitch when I’m going straight into rehab in the gym. My first season was almost a write-off in the Premier League, but hopefully I’ll get the last couple of games in and have some sort of effect on the end.”
But even as he dreams of the perfect conclusion to the campaign, the Baldoyle native knows from previous setbacks this season that he can’t afford to overdo things either.
“Maybe I came back a small bit soon but that was just me being eager,” he says. “I don’t think there was anyone going to stop me coming back. If I felt I could play, I was going to play, but I have to be a bit more careful this time because I don’t want anything flaring up.”
His injury woes mean the 22-year-old Irish international has yet to play under Martin O’Neill, although he was invited to the camp last November to meet the new manager. He also reveals that, before his most recent surgery, O’Neill rang to tell him to keep his head up and that if he needed anything, the manager was just a phone call away.
“It was good of him,” says Brady. “It was great to get the phone call and I really appreciated it myself, keeping me in the loop sort of thing. You hate being out in the cold. When you’re injured it can feel that way, but I’m excited now and raring to go with the Irish set-up as well as my football with Hull.”
Brady says he is disappointed not to have added to his six senior caps by now, Giovanni Trapattoni’s uncertainty about him probably summed up before the World Cup qualifier against Sweden in Stockholm in March of last year when the manager first named the winger in his team and then, at the 11th hour, decided to opt for Jon Walters instead.
“I was training all week, I had the bib on and I thought I was starting so I was getting myself ready for the game,” Brady recalls. “I was excited about it. He named me in the team and then, to be fair, he came into me the night before — I was rooming with Shane Long — and, at first I thought I was still playing, but then he was talking about how he wanted to pack up the strength in midfield, and I think he might have seen me as more of a flair player than something solid in there. He mentioned Jon Walters’ name, so then I thought I wasn’t playing and I had a word with Robbie [Keane]. I think Robbie went to speak to him and he came back and said that he was going with Jonny Walters on the wing.
“I couldn’t see why he had named me in the first place. I really was ready for it. But it was just one of those things. He must have had a change of mind and he’s got every right to, but I was just a bit disappointed. It was a big game for me.”
Understandably, Brady is now desperate to make up for lost time.
“I want to stick around, I want to play for years for my country,” he says. “And when I do get in, I’m looking to make some sort of big impression rather than just be the face that’s in and out all the time. I want to be a main face.”
* Robbie Brady was speaking at the launch of the Doritos Penalty Shootout competition which offers contestants the chance to take on England Number One Joe Hart. Entrants need to be over 18 and registration details can be accessed on Doritos.co.uk before April 18.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
