THIS TIME last year, Sean St Ledger was still waiting to make his international debut. The Nigeria game was approaching and his club form made him a strong prospect to feature but few could have imagined the way the following 12 months would pan out for the Birmingham-born centre back.

The 25-year-old has become a regular in Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland set-up and tonight will be his 11th start for the Republic but along the way the wheels have somehow become detached from the bandwagon that was his club career and appreciative as he is of the Italian’s vote of confidence in him, the defender sounded a little bemused this week as to what has become of his “next big thing,” status back in Britain.

The problems started early in the season when then Middlebrough boss Gareth Southgate took him to the Riverside on a loan deal which was supposed to have been made permanent.

The manager was shown the door, though, after a sluggish start to the season and, despite a substantial down payment having been made, Gordon Strachan appears to have decided not to complete the purchase.

St Ledger returned to Deepdale but Celtic’s Tony Mowbray then came calling. The Scots made three offers but all were rejected. Something might still have happened this summer except Mowbray was sacked and to cap it all, Alan Irvine, the Preston manager who had done so much to develop the defender over the previous couple of years, was dismissed too.

“I think I was bad luck this year,” he observes ruefully, “a few managers linked with me got the sack! It was a bit of a nightmare. I made the hat-trick.”

All of this, personal difficulties away from the game and a couple of niggling injury problems that will require two operations on consecutive days in the coming weeks might just explain the player’s loss of form over the second half of the Championship season and he is hoping that all can be put behind him over the summer months.

“There has been a lot of ups and downs – and probably more downs than ups, being honest,” he acknowledges. “It has been a hard year, off the pitch more so, I’d say. But it’s been a learning curve at the same time, an experience that will hopefully make me a better player.”

His form, he admits, has been: “pretty poor really, by my standards but,” he adds, “I’ll try and move on. Sometimes you don’t play well and you just don’t know the reasons why. Maybe there was a lot of stuff going on off the pitch and that was the reason. I’m just looking forward to coming back next season fit and I’ll kick on.”

After watching first Burnley and now Blackpool win promotion there is a hint of despair as he expresses the hope that next year might be Preston’s turn.

Irvine’s successor, Darren Ferguson, would have preferred the player to skip these friendlies and have his injuries sorted out straight away but international football has become an important part of St Ledger’s life and having staked his claim to somebody else’s place at Craven Cottage in one end of season friendly, he isn’t about to let another newcomer do the same to him this time around.

Such games can be seem trivial at times but, he insists; “They’re majorly important”.

“People might think they are ‘only friendlies’ but they’re important for me to play well in and keep my place because the new boys are good and they are trying to impress the manager and his staff.”

Tonight’s team selection suggests none has done quite enough to really catch the eye of Italian just yet.