Relaxed Duffy happy to stay in the moment

It’s just about being happy and enjoying my game and embracing it, says Ireland defender 

Shane Duff is all smiles during a press conference at the FAI HQ in Abbotstown. Picture: Tom Maher/Inpho

Shane Duffy has learned not to sweat the small stuff. Some of the bigger-picture items aren’t exercising him all that much either.

This sense of perspective shouldn’t be all that surprising. The Ireland defender almost died on a football pitch in Malahide when he was 18, and he has had to come through a traumatic period in recent times given the passing of his father Brian and a career that was in turmoil.

It’s not as if everything has been sweetness and light since he returned to the Amex Stadium from Celtic.

A solid start to the current season was compromised by a bout of Covid and then ankle surgery over the Christmas period.

There was an on-field spat with goalkeeper Robert Sánchez during last month’s 3-0 loss to Burnley as well.

The other side of the ledger balances all that out. Not just the 26 appearances he has made for the Premier League club this term, or the three goals scored, but the smile on his face and general air of contentment as he goes about his business.

He turned the ‘wrong’ side of 30 only last January and his contract with the Seagulls is up in the summer of 2023, but this is a man who is more interested in relishing life in the here-and-now than scanning the horizon for what’s to come.

“I’m not even thinking about stuff like that. From where I was in my life and my career, it’s just about enjoying every game and every day. Whatever happens, happens. Football is a funny sport and anything can happen.

Shane Duffy:  'I’m loving being at Brighton, it’s a home for me and I’ll always be there until they tell me I’m not.' Picture: PA

“For me, it’s just about being happy and enjoying my game and embracing it. I’m loving being at Brighton, it’s a home for me and I’ll always be there until they tell me I’m not. That’s where I’m at. I’m not even looking that far down the line.”

He makes an exception for the national side.

It’s hard not to look ahead with a sense of optimism given the turn in fortunes for Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland team as they prepare for the upcoming friendlies against Belgium and Lithuania and a Nations League campaign further down the tracks.

Ireland’s next traditional qualifying campaign follows in 2023 and Duffy, who was a key member in the side that reached the knockout stage of Euro 2016 in France, would be 32 should they make that continental gathering in Germany.

The age you get to… In football we’re not naive, especially with the younger ones coming through. I am excited. I don’t know how it will go. Age is just a number.

“If I am feeling fit… I’ve seen John O’Shea and Robbie Keane play, at the ages they were. Every chance is big to play for your country at major tournaments ... You made me feel old there.”

He’ll be 36 by the time Euro 2028 swings around, with the possibility very real that some games could be played in Dublin if the UK and Ireland bid succeeds, and he admitted that it would be “daft” to rule himself out of that despite his advancing years.

Duffy is already an elder statesman in an Ireland squad where the demographic has been turned upside down and, while a sense of equilibrium has been found after so much experimentation, changes are a fact of life in football.

So it was again yesterday with Gavin Bazunu and Mark Travers ruled out as goalkeeping options, Bristol City’s Max O’Leary and Bohemians’ James Talbot called up as cover, and Caoimhín Kelleher all but elevated to certain starter against Belgium in Saturday.

QPR defender Jimmy Dunne is another to have come in, in his case for the injured Darragh Lenihan as Kenny’s squad ups its preparations for a Nations League group involving Scotland, Ukraine, and Armenia and kicks off in June. “We can go well in the Nations League,” said Duffy. “We can win the group and that’s not me speaking ahead of ourselves. The way we are going and the belief that we have, we can go win it. That would be a successful start and go on from there.

“That is what we have to start believing and aiming for as a country — that we can win groups and qualify for tournaments. That comes from us, from you, from the fans. And why not? You can see the progression we are making now.

"When we had a difficult start we always said the young players would benefit from that, and we are seeing that now. We are picking up results. Hopefully we can win the Nations League and have a good qualification campaign, set the standard for ourselves, and give the whole nation a buzz.”