Maguire: I haven’t done myself justice in Irish jersey

So then, Sean, tell me why you don’t like Mondays?

Yep, we were all primed to give it the full Geldof with Sean Maguire on foot of confirmation that, as at Preston so with Ireland, he doesn’t train on the first day of the working week.

But then he only goes and spoils it all by revealing that a day off for him is not like a day off for the rest of us.

Not at all.

“Yeah, I’ve seen it said that Seanie Maguire takes Mondays off,” he smiles. “But it’s not ‘I don’t like Mondays’ and I only start training on

Tuesday. I just get myself into the gym on a Monday. I do a session on the bike, a pretty tough session, and then they give me the option, if I’m still feeling a bit leggy, to do an upper body circuit.

“And if I feel OK I do a full body session.

“I’m also in at 9 most mornings, in the gym for 45 minutes before every training session, and I’ll probably have to do that now until the day I retire.

“It was frustrating in the past year but I’ve got used to it now: Most times being in the gym on my own, getting my legs warmed up before we go out for a proper warm-up.”

The reason for the tailored fitness regime is those well-documented pesky hamstrings which have, well, hamstrung his otherwise encouraging progress since the striker left Turner’s Cross for Deepdale.

“Especially with three games in a week — last week I played two 90s and 80 minutes — I think the best thing to do is drop out of training on Mondays and focus on strength work,” he says, “and the gaffer (Mick McCarthy) wants to follow Preston’s regime.

“It’s just about managing my load, particularly in training.

Preston were looking at my stats throughout the week and I do a lot of running in training. They’ve even said to me to kind of ‘chill out’ sometimes. But I train the way I play so I can’t chill out in training. So the best thing to do is take Monday off.

Well, in a manner of speaking, at any rate.

Maguire’s 95th-minute winner against Birmingham on Saturday meant he arrived in the Irish camp in paticularly good spirits, even if he maintains that he’s not yet back to his “fully 100% best”.

After nearly two months out at the end of last year, he is honest enough to admit he can feel himself “getting leggy” in the last 20 minutes of games but he still insists that, if required, he will be ready to perform on the double for

Ireland in the European Championship qualifiers against Gibraltar tomorrow and Georgia on Tuesday.

“It would be realistic,” he says. “I’ve started the last 10 or 11 games for Preston, played four or five 90s and we’ve had two or three big weeks, and it hasn’t fazed me at all.”

Understandably, after all his injury woes, Maguire is keen to put his false start Irish career behind him and, especially, to break his international duck.

“It could be a great opportunity in the next couple of games to score my first goal for Ireland,” he says. “I haven’t really kicked on on the international stage. When I put the Irish jersey on, I haven’t really done myself justice. I haven’t played particularly well. I know I’ve only had one start and had a few cameos here and there but these could be a couple of games where I could kick on. I’m ready. And I’ll relish the opportunity to put the jersey on. I think my record for Cork and when I am fit for Preston shows I score goals.

“I feel like if I just get that first one then the rest will take care of itself.

“Hopefully, that happens this weekend.”

Of course, when it comes to Ireland’s ongoing quest to find the new Robbie Keane, Maguire now has the unique advantage of being able to lean on the wisdom of, well, the old Robbie Keane.

This Irish camp is the first time Seanie has met Robbie, and the former is already reaping the information

benefits.

“Yeah, he’s given me advice the last couple of days. And when that sort of player gives you advice, you need to really listen to it. What kind of advice? Striker to striker, how he gets his goals, what he did to get where he was. Most of Robbie’s goals were one touch, two touches. You get most of your goals in the 18-yard box and I suppose I need to learn from that.

In training on Tuesday we were playing 11 v 11, and afterwards he came over to me and told me what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I could be doing better.

One thing Maguire doesn’t need telling is that the best possible thing he could do tomorrow is to find the back of the net against Gibraltar.

“Yeah, it’s a big opportunity,” he says.

“We can’t underestimate them. They won their first game last year and they won’t be pushovers. It will be one of those underdog stories but, as a striker, these types of games — where there will be a few opportunities — are the games you want to play in.

“Hopefully I’m on my A-game come Saturday and get my first goal.”