After swapping City for Black Country, Wolves' Hodge eager to bare teeth

Once City's Scholar of the Year, Irish playmaker has endured some tough lessons in recent times. But he finally feels on the up

Wed, 23 Mar, 2022 - 23:03

John Fallon

When the Premier League champions and your boyhood idols are dangling a contract extension, it takes a dollop of conviction to politely decline.

Joe Hodge had to leave sentiment aside for the sake of his career, moving on from Manchester City to a new beginning at Wolves last year.

City’s Scholar of the Year was well ahead of schedule for club and country, even name-checked by Stephen Kenny in 2019 as worthy of being fast-tracked, but injuries checked his progress.

Hodge is only 19 but in this era of special talents seems a name long tipped for stardom. Not quite back to peak condition, his first start for Wolves recently, followed by a cameo in Ireland’s U20 friendly on Tuesday, confirmed he’s at least on track.

Frustration at the delay in diagnosing his injury and a couple of set-backs is apparent in his words, yet equally so is the sense of determination to fulfil his potential.

Wolves, not City, is the place he’s certain that evolution can be reshaped.

“I didn’t see Wolves as being a step down from Manchester City,” he affirmed. “They’re both big clubs and I thought it was the right time to go.

“City offered me an option to stay but I was looking forward to changing environment. I was keen to move on to try something else and I had worked under the Wolves sporting director Scott Sellers at Manchester City previously.

“It’s been a rough couple of years. I’ve played hardly any football Tuesday was my fourth game and I am getting towards being fully fit.”

His first major injury, a stress fracture in his back, occurred just weeks after he sealed a loan switch to Derry City.

“I had something in my back before that but told it was nothing to worry about,” he explained about the move that yielded zero competitive minutes. “I thought it was something I could play through but it became unbearable. I was struggling to run and couldn’t move. It needed to be sorted.

“I was buzzing to join Derry and had settled to get the injury three days before our first game was frustrating.”

Hodge need only look inside Molineux for an example of an English-born Irish playmaker to eventually profit from biding of time. Connor Ronan has earned his first call-up to the senior squad this week at 24 on the back of carving out his reputation on loan in four different countries.

“Connor was around the first team a few years back but had to be patient, going on loan to Switzerland, Slovakia and now Scotland.

“Watching him in training, he’s a top player and it’s done him a lot of good getting that experience.

“We’ll see what the club want to do with me but I’d definitely be open to going to play senior football. I’ll hopefully be looking at that sooner rather than later.”