Megan Campbell primed for return after seeing off darkest days

Taking to the training pitch is routine stuff for a professional footballer but when Megan Campbell joined her Manchester City teammates for a session last Monday, it felt like a real milestone day for the Irish international.

And with good reason. A cruciate knee injury and a series of severe setbacks and complications had kept the 25-year-old defender from Drogheda sidelined for the previous 15 months and, on her darkest days, left her fearful that her playing career might be at a premature end.

“It does come into your head: what if this is the end or if this happens again, will it be the end of my career?” she reflects. “Because it took so long, mentally you think, ‘I don’t even want to play anymore’. There were times when I didn’t want to go training, times I didn’t want to do anything.

“But it’s about trying to lift yourself out of that hole and going, ‘well, there is an end and no matter what level it’s at I will get back playing’.”

A challenging time professionally was made even more difficult to bear by personal loss.

“Mentally, I think it took more out of me than physically because it wasn’t just football that was involved, or not being able to play,” she says. “I lost my granddad (musician Eamonn Campbell) in October (2017), I got injured in November and then in April I lost my Nana. So, it wasn’t the easiest year and a bit to get through. You learn a lot about yourself as a person, on and off the pitch. To have the support of family around you is great.

But being away from them was tough at times I just had to put my head down and try and get as fit as possible. The day was coming for a long time for me to train again and thankfully it’s arrived. It’s non-contact this week and next week and then it’s a return to contact to build myself up. My goal is to play against Watford in FA Cup (February 3). I’ll be on restricted minutes but it’s better than 15 months ago.

With the Irish team set to begin their Euro 2021 qualification campaign in September, Megan is also targeting a return to the senior set-up for a friendly against Wales in Marbella at the end of February. Manager Colin Bell has kept in touch with her throughout her recovery and, she says, “whether it’s just training or to get minutes he wants me in and around the team. It’s nice to have his backing.”

Campbell says she has noticed a significant increase in the profile of the women’s game here since the senior squad took a public stand two years ago for better terms and conditions from the FAI.

“Definitely, but we then had to start performing on the pitch,” she is quick to point out. “And we started to do that at the start of the campaign, drawing away against Holland, the reigning European champions at the time, and that stood to us well.

“We got bigger attendances, more young girls and boys were coming to the games with their families. It’s like a proper community vibe when you come to the Irish women’s games and it shows the younger generation are following it.

“And it’s nice to see with the SPAR/FAI 5-a-sides that the young girls know about it now. When I was a kid it was all male role models that you had whereas now young girls, through this system and the FAI, can see that there are female role models as well and that they can aspire to be like them.

That helps with the attendances at our games, and the amount that the FAI do to try to promote that is really good and has come a long way.

With Man City having extended her contract to the summer, Campbell’s immediate focus might be on getting back playing but she has also been using her enforced lay-off to plan a long-term future in the game, including starting her Uefa B coaching badge and doing punditry with RTÉ.

“I’ve got options in that respect after the game,” she says, before adding meaningfully, “but hopefully I don’t have to look at them for quite a while”.

- Megan Campbell was speaking at the launch of the 2019 SPAR FAI Primary School 5s programme. Registration is at www.fai.ie/primary5