SOCCER: HAVING ENDURED the frustration of missing a large chunk of the season with Wolves, with injuries ruling him out for almost five months over two spells, Stephen Hunt is just relieved to be back playing again.
The season did, at least, end on a high, as Hunt’s return coincided with Wolves picking up seven points from their last five games, which was enough, ultimately, to see them avoid relegation.
After suffering that fate with both Reading and Hull, Wolves’ final day “escape”, despite a 3-2 home defeat by Blackburn, was greeted with not inconsiderable joy by the 29-year-old.
“Depressing, horrible,” he said of those relegation experiences, “so to have a summer now where I know for sure that I’m in the Premier League next season . . . well, I can chill out and relax.
“The way I’ve been for the last few years, I didn’t know what was going on, where I’d be the following season, it was all very intense.”
A goal and “three or four assists” in those last five games were, he said, his way of thanking manager Mick McCarthy for his patience and support while he recovered from his injuries.
“I owed that to him, I owed him the bit of form, because he signed me when I was injured, showed that faith in me. It was nice to have made that contribution in the last few games, but it was only a short-term impact, hopefully next season I can kick on.
“But yeah, it’s been a frustrating season. The foot injury led on to the calf problem, then I broke my balls to get back and ended up making the injury worse. That led to the hernia problem. When I came back I was running around like a lunatic, chasing lost time, and that’s always the danger.
“The manager just told me to relax, slow down. I was in a good frame of mind when I came back at the end, at least I was able to do something to help the team, so that was a relief after everything.”
He admits that during his spells out he wasn’t always in the frame of mind to tune in to the Republic of Ireland’s European Championship qualifying campaign. “Sometimes I didn’t even watch the games, to be honest with you. You want to switch off and think about other things. Sometimes you don’t want to get too intense about it, it’s difficult enough. When you’re at a club like Wolves, they can have you in doing long hours of rehab and the last thing you want to do is come home and watch more football, if that makes sense.”
Now, though, he’s hoping he can make a contribution to the qualifying effort, after returning to international action against Northern Ireland in the Nations Cup, coming on for the last 20 minutes, before playing the full 90 against Scotland.
It has, though, felt like an age since his last competitive international appearance, when he came on for the last 10 minutes of the home leg of the World Cup play-off against France in November 2009. Those injuries, combined with him falling behind Aiden McGeady, Damien Duff and Liam Lawrence in the pecking order for the wide midfield positions, have seen his chances limited, so he’s not taking for granted he’ll be involved tomorrow.
“It’d be nice, in terms of being fresh and injury-free, but the manager has three or four options, so whatever he goes with, we’ll take it from there. I started seven out of 10 games in the last campaign and really enjoyed it, but this one has been more frustrating, for me it hasn’t got going yet. So, if I get my chance against Macedonia, I’ll just be doubly determined to take it.”
