I’ll keep on bouncing back, vows David McGoldrick

David McGoldrick knows people are frustrated.

Two years and more of one injury after another have led to that. Knees. Hamstrings. Thighs. Ah, you could go on, but you catch the drift. He’s tried the yoga and the bands and the stretches. It all added 45 minutes onto his day but it hasn’t warded off all the evil spirits.

The season was less than a week old when he suffered his latest misfortune playing for Ipswich Town. He wasn’t on 10 minutes as a half-time sub in the EFL Cup game against Stevenage when he went up for a header, landed awkwardly on his ankle and ruptured the bloody thing.

The smart thing to do was to wave to the bench and hobble off. He played on.

McGoldrick knew he would be out for a while with it. He could tell, so he lasted until the final whistle and wasn’t at all surprised when his ankle swelled up like the proverbial balloon when he took his boot off. His manager, Mick McCarthy, turned the air blue.

“I think he wanted to pin me up against the wall,” said McGoldrick.

He missed another two months on the back of that, but the specialists backed up his suspicion that the damage had already been done and that playing on hadn’t aggravated it to any great extent. The hardest part was that he knew what people would be thinking when the news broke.

“You don’t want that sicknote tag... you don’t want people thinking: ‘Aw, here he goes again.’ But then I was walking out of the dressing room on crutches and I could feel people looking and going: ‘What’s going on here?’ That wasn’t a good sign, but I learned from it. I will keep going. I will never stop.”

He’s played just over 200 minutes across three games since his latest comeback, but he’ll tell you himself that full fitness isn’t upon him yet. The ankle is still covered by an enormous strapping to keep it steady, but it seems to be more a superstition than a medical necessity by now.

That aside, he seems to have dealt well with the knocks and niggles.

Injury has curbed his international career, too. Only three caps have been added to the first, earned this time two years ago against the USA, and he missed out on selection to the Euros last summer, partially on the back of a four-month stint on the sidelines up to April.

There was no ‘woe is me’ act as he spoke about it. O’Neill’s preference for a lone striker and McGoldrick’s lack of match practice had him primed for the bad news which, he explained, made it pretty easy to cheer on the boys in green from the comfort of his couch.

Still, how has he remained this positive?

“It’s my personality. I’ve been through stuff in my life and you have to humble yourself. I’m privileged to play for my country. To be a footballer. I watch the news and I see things and I remember things. Every young boy wants to be a footballer. I’m a footballer, so I can’t give up. People would swap places with me any day of the week.

“It’s more mental strength coming back. It’s watching the games and seeing the boys going out training while you’re sitting in the treatment room. That’s the hard thing, but once you come through that block and you’ve got the mental drive and you set goals, I think you come back strong and eager.”

His faith has been shared by Martin O’Neill. The opening three rounds of the World Cup qualifiers have already passed him by, thanks to that ankle problem, but he had just two appearances off the bench to his credit with the club when he was included in O’Neill’s provisional squad for tomorrow’s trip to Vienna.

With Robbie Keane finally off the roster, and no Shane Long or Daryl Murphy flying to Austria, there is scope for one of the four forwards named in this week’s squad to step up and make a name for themselves. McGoldrick offers the option of an orthodox No 9 or a deeper No 10.

“Personally I do like to drop and link play, get involved. I like to get touches on the ball, but I can do the No 9 role, the striker’s role. I did it for Ipswich for years. When up front on your own, you have to stretch the game. Otherwise, you know, the midfield boys, they need an outlet.

“That’s why Shane or [Daryl Murphy] is perfect, Jonny Walters is perfect. When you’ve got that role, you have to do it really well, but when there is two, you’ve got that room to drop and link the play and the play stretches. That’s where I like to get involved, but I feel I can do both.”