Jeff Hendrick getting used to life in the spotlight
The midfielder is not one to indulge the limelight yet doesn’t adopt the prima-donna attitude of encasing himself from an Irish public becoming more accustomed to his role in Martin O’Neill’s team.
This time three years ago, Hendrick’s absence in Austria for Giovanni Trapattoni’s last game was hardly noticed, unlike this Saturday’s assignment in Vienna when his return from suspension is more than compensating for the unavailability through injury of midfield partner James McCarthy.
“I get spotted a lot more now when I’m out even with my friends, like being with my dad walking into the shops today,” revealed the 24-year-old, these days a Premier League regular for Burnley rather than operating in the Championship with Derby.
“I consider it a nice thing and a compliment that they know who I am. If people want pictures, I do it. I don’t mind that at all and never turn it down.
I’d say it’s crazy for the former Ireland players — the big, big ones — but I’m anywhere near that level.
“If I keep getting spotted, though, it means I’m doing something right on the pitch.”
At just 24, Hendrick will certainly be getting more recognised. Helping Ireland qualify for the Euros and excelling in France is one thing but reaching a World Cup finals carries with it exalted status.
Not that the Dubliner needs the attention, as his performances at club and international level during this calendar year mark him out as genuine quality at a time Irish graduates to the top level are scarce.
Having joined the Clarets on a €10m deal days earlier, Hendrick broke his scoring duck in an Irish shirt at the 27th attempt in Serbia in September. That 2-2 draw preceded a narrow but vital win over Georgia last month, a fixture from which his second successive yellow card meant a suspension for the trip to Moldova.
That didn’t prevent him travelling with the squad to eastern Europe instead of taking the easy option of slipping back to his club to prepare for their visit to Southampton.
“It felt like I was there as a competition winner!” he joked. “The manager asked me to come and I was happy to travel because to still be around the lads was a good laugh.
“While they were training hard, I got a bit of spa treatment. But it was great to be around the hotel with them, have dinner and go see the stadium.”
Victory in Chisinau racked up a seven-point haul for O’Neill’s from their three opening fixtures, sufficient to have them sitting joint-top with Serbia heading into the weekend series featuring clashes between the top four in Group D.
Austria have a proud, unbeaten competitive record at the Ernst Happel Stadium stretching back four years and 10 games to their loss against eventual world champions Germany but have endured a rocky start to this campaign.
Although a sell-out crowd expect the likes of David Alaba and Marko Arnautovic to deliver their first big win of the qualifiers, Hendrick doesn’t see any reason why a result can’t be extracted from the raucous arena.
Such an outcome would have the twin-track effect of handing Ireland the initiative in pursuit of the one guaranteed ticket to Russia while diminishing the prospects of another contender.
“It’s still early in the campaign but we like getting points on the board and that’s what we’ve been doing,” said Hendrick.
“We’ve started off the group well and the aim is to continue that in Saturday’s big game.
“Austria are a strong side and haven’t lost at home qualifier for a long time but we’ll have a game-plan in place after watching them and doing our homework.
“Ireland are like Burnley in that both teams always get written off. People wrote us off in the Euro qualification and we still reached the finals. Even if we don’t get the right result on Saturday, we will fight to the end.
“Teams will take points off each other in this group but we’ll be right in there competing for qualification.”
Sounds like a man with the experience on board to complement his talent.
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