The headline omission from Ireland’s World Cup squad was probably that of Leanne Kiernan, Jamie Finn’s relegation to a travelling reserve catching more than a few off guard too. Aoife Mannion missing out also prompted plenty of chat, although her recent injury woes probably made that less of a surprise.
At 24, 25 and 27, there’s plenty of football left in their legs yet, so hopefully they’ll come again, although that will hardly ease the crushing disappointment of them failing to make it to their country’s first ever World Cup.
Megan Campbell, though, marked her 30th birthday on Wednesday by packing her bags and heading for home after being told by Vera Pauw that she wasn’t fit enough to be included in the squad. “Unfortunately for Megan there was no chance,” said the manager, “the risk would have been too great.”
This was the biggest heartbreaker of the lot.
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“Watching the Irish men in the World Cup, the Ireland flag on my wall, my room painted green, and dreaming of one day playing for my country in the World Cup too ... that’s how it was when I was a kid. To be able to say I represented Ireland, my family and my friends on the biggest stage possible, yeah, it would be a dream come true. And I would be very emotional if I succeeded in doing that.”
So said Campbell a few weeks back when we caught up for a chat, when her hopes of making the squad, 12 years after her Irish debut, were burning bright. Her voice trailed off when she talked of lining out in Stadium Australia in front of 82,500 for the World Cup opener against the tournament’s co-hosts. She was overcome with emotion even then.
Few have suffered from sport’s cruelty more than Campbell down the years, the list of injuries she’s had to battle back from, physically and emotionally, mercilessly unrelenting.
They started when she left Drogheda for Florida State University, her football scholarship there interrupted by a broken foot. And she’d hardly arrived in Manchester after joining City in 2016 when she needed reconstruction surgery on her ankle after tearing a ligament off the bone. And then tendonitis kicked in.
After eight months of rehabilitation, she was back. And then she suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Between everything, she was on the sidelines for 15 months. She came back. And then there was another ankle injury that left her surgeon doubting she’d ever play football again.
She did, with Liverpool, but was laid low again, more ankle trouble.
The toll has been immense, not least emotionally, so for those who have followed her battles, there was no name you wanted to see more in that World Cup squad list than that of Megan Campbell.
Instead, having been released by Liverpool in May, she’s club-less and will watch the World Cup on TV, maybe with the Ireland flag on her wall and her room painted green.
That’s sport, of course, but sometimes it can be too brutal for words.
