Even now, at 22, he barely looks a day older than he did when he first linked up with an Irish squad. But then sometimes it's easy to imagine that David Connolly, who returns to the Irish starting line up tomorrow night in Bursa, has been off somewhere in cold storage, preserved in pristine condition for this, the day when he would again get a chance to prove himself on the international stage.

A couple of seasons back, Connolly would have taken it all in his stride but then, a couple of seasons back few would have suspected that the combination of some odd twists in his club career and the emergence of an even younger frontman would leave him residing for long periods on margins of the Irish set up.

It's not so long ago that the up and coming striker inspired just the sort of hype which surrounds Robbie Keane now. But while the Dubliner, whose rashness on Saturday night has handed Connolly his start, effectively killed off the doubts which lingered about his true potential by successfully making the leap to club football at the highest level, Connolly finds himself back where he was when he declined the offer a new contract at Watford.

At that stage he seemed to be on the fast track to the big time, an impression apparently confirmed when Feyenoord decided to part with around £15,000 a week in order to secure his services.

The move quickly turned sour, though, with the man who had signed him departing and a new manager, Leo Beenhakker, deciding virtually before he'd had time to hang up his coat that the young Irishman was not for him.

"It happened quickly but then that's often the way it does happen," says Connolly. "He let me know and he had other people let me know that he didn't even want me as part of his first team squad on the basis, I think, of things that didn't necessarily have much to do with football.

"If I'd messed it up, I'd like to think that I'd say that that's what happened but I honestly don't think I did, I don't think I ever even got the chance to."

Of late, however, a spell on loan at first division outfit Excelsior has sparked a transformation of the player's fortunes.

To be playing regular football again, he insists, is the most important thing to him but the 16 goals he has scored since the start of the season, 10 in the last 11 games, has had a dramatic effect on his confidence.

Excelsior's boss, Adrie Koster, remarks simply that Connolly is "too good a player for a club like ours but we are delighted to have him" while McCarthy, who saw him play and score recently extols a whole catalogue of his qualities.

"He's a natural goalscorer that's the first thing but his movement is good off the ball, he can hold it up for others around him and he's a brave lad, he puts himself across defenders and he causes them an awful lot of problems."

Having resurrected his club career, the 22 year-old admits to seeing tomorrow's game as another "wonderful opportunity" but is under no illusions about his chances of dislodging Keane as McCarthy's first choice.

"Basically I'm just happy with the way everything is going for me at the moment. In Holland I'm getting some recognition for the way that I'm playing and I'm very happy again with the way things are going for me. For Ireland, well, for me this is probably a one game thing but there's a very important job to be done in that game and hopefully, when the time comes, I can do it."