'I never think that I’m a dead cert' - Niamh Fahey fighting fit and battling for seat on World Cup flight

The hugely experienced Ireland star saw her season curtailed by injury. 

CENTURION: Republic of Ireland's Niamh Fahey, who comes from a Galway family with an impressive sporting pedigree. 

Parents everywhere know how tough it can be to untangle the daily list of lifts and laundry when it comes to kids and their sporting commitments. The Faheys in Killannin, Galway had more to get their head around than most.

Marjorie and Richard Fahey have eight children. Two of their six sons – Richie and Gary – won All-Ireland senior medals with the Galway footballers, the two girls between them tried their hands at basketball, Gaelic and soccer.

Niamh, the youngest of them all, won her own All-Ireland with Galway in 2004 and has since gone on to build a brilliant career with some of England’s great clubs and play over a hundred times for the Republic of Ireland.

They’re all their own people now, adults with their own lives and cars and washing machines, but the crisscross of games and events will spill into the height of summer when the Women’s World Cup overlaps with an anniversary of real note.

It’s 25 years since Richie and Gary were part of the Galway team that won the county a first senior football All-Ireland since the mid-sixties and that means the traditional invite to Croke Park for this year’s decider and the 1998 team’s wave of honour on the sacred sod.

Gary won’t make it that day. He will be part of the Fahey supporting cast and crew over in Australia where Ireland will be just 24 hours or so removed from the last of their group games against Nigeria in Brisbane.

The gaping hole in what was the 1998 Galway defence will be filled in Croke Park by their father.

“Dad will be suited and booted,” Niamh explained. “They got the suits fitted so he’s going to Croker. He’s not a big fan of flying. Getting him to Liverpool on a plane is a job so I don’t think getting him to Australia is within the remit.” 

First things first, though.

Fahey has been a mainstay of this Irish team. Just the fourth woman to make it to a century of senior caps for this country, she missed ten games for Liverpool since January because of injury and only featured twice on her return at the season’s end.

Vera Pauw will finalise her travelling roster at the end of the month and the Galwegian is adamant that her ticket can’t be taken for granted after what was a hugely frustrating absence that dragged on for longer than anyone imagined.

“I never think that I’m a dead cert.” The injury itself was an innocuous sort of thing. It happened in training at the start of February, a sore calf but nothing much more. A Grade One problem, according to the first scan, probably from fatigue. Be grand, she thought. Except it wasn’t.

World Cup worries began to mount as weeks went by without resolution.

“It was misdiagnosed and it was only meant to be one to three weeks and then it was more significant than that. As time moves on you start to worry a little bit but I was happy enough once I got over the training blocs, got back into the team at Liverpool and some games under my belt. I felt a lot more comfortable then once I was back on the pitch.” 

It’s not like she’s alone in watching the clock this year.

Pauw has had to fret over the fitness of more players than she would like in 2023. Among them was Fahey’s clubmate Leanne Kiernan who was sidelined since the first day of the season last September and the pair could at least solider on together.

“The two of us were on the Wattbikes for a few weeks together. Our rehab coincided and the two of us were getting out our frustration with sweat and anger. It’s a good way to burn it off and Leanne and I did our rehab on the pitch together then.

“It can be monotonous on your own with the physio so having another player there with you means their pass and touch is a bit better so you’re not scrambling an extra yard for the ball. That was nice. It was good for the two of us to have each other there.”