Leanne Kiernan has only played 32 minutes of competitive football since last September but, she confirmed, “I still know where the goal is”.
The 1,200 schoolchildren who watched the Republic of Ireland’s training game in UCD on Friday can attest to that, the Cavan woman scoring with a peach of a strike.
“Long time no see,” she laughed when she met up with the press pack after the session, this her first Irish training camp in nine months having injured her ankle playing for Liverpool in the opening game of the Women’s Super League season.
It was the cruellest of blows for the 24-year-old who’d had her three years with West Ham blighted by injuries too, shin splints and a torn hamstring among her many afflictions.
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She dropped down a division when she joined Liverpool in the summer of 2021, her 13 goals helping them win promotion to the WSL, and earning her the club’s Player of the Season award. But her return to the top flight was barely an hour old when she landed awkwardly after a challenge by Chelsea’s Kadeisha Buchanan. And that was her season as good as done, Kiernan only returning to action in late May.
She struggled at first to come to terms with her diagnosis.
“But you know what, the best thing was when Amber Barrett scored that goal,” she says, referring, of course, to her fellow striker’s winner in the World Cup qualifying play-off against Scotland last October.
“Because then I knew I had an end goal to my rehab. I had a whiteboard in my room with the World Cup dates written on it, so I was always working towards that. I cried my eyes out when Amber scored. Happy tears.”
Before that night it had been hard to stay motivated when she was looking at months on the sidelines once again.
“It’s a lonely time too,” she says, “you’re in maybe four or five hours before you get to see the team. It’s just you up on that Wattbike instead of being out on the pitch. You and weights, you and yourself. Some days you’ll come in and do great. But the next day, you it could be two steps backwards.”
But Barrett’s goal and those World Cup dates gave her the push she needed to drive on after she had surgery on her ankle in September.
“I read an interview recently where it said how this [she gestures a small enough distance between her fingers] is how good it is to go to a World Cup, but this [she spreads her arms wide] is all the fu*king work you do to get there.”
Having two Irish team-mates at the club – Niamh Fahey and Megan Campbell – was a big help, both of them keeping her motivated, Fahey later joining her in the treatment room when she picked up a calf injury in February.
“And some of the staff are Irish too, so I always felt at home. I was lucky. I had good people around me, and the club has a great support system.”
It helped that she had signed a contract extension shortly before her injury, the club then invested in her recovery, not all players, especially of the female variety, enjoying those levels of care.
There were setbacks along the way that slowed that recovery, but she never allowed any doubts enter her head about her chances of being fit in time to be in contention for a place in the World Cup squad.
“I’m a very positive thinker – when I set my goals, nothing can get in the way of them. And listen, you never want to have a serious injury, but if you are to have one, then this was the best time, I had time to heal.”
She learnt a whole heap about herself too through it all.
“Probably about my mental ability, being able to stay focused and strong, not being easily taken down because I’ve been through this. And I can lift heavier in the gym! And my left foot, using that. Working on other things you don’t get to work on that much. But it’s all made me mentally tough, I feel like I’m in a really good place now. I feel confident.”
Her Irish team-mates kept her going too.
“The girls have been brilliant, they have always been good to me, texting me and keeping me updated. Ringing during camp to let me know what’s been going on, always making me feel involved. I feel that is why our team is such a tight-knit group, we all get on so well. Everybody takes it seriously, but there is always great craic behind the scenes.”
Vera Pauw kept in touch too to monitor her progress, but having started in just three of the manager’s 29 games in charge of Ireland so far, coming on as a substitute in another six, Kiernan is not taking her inclusion in the World Cup squad for granted.
“You know, I don’t even think about that right now. I just know that in every training session I will give 110 per cent. If that’s enough, that’s enough. I can only do my best and hope everything else falls into place. I feel really good. Probably fresher than I’ve ever felt because I’ve had so much time off.”
Diane Caldwell, 10 years Kiernan’s senior, slaps her on the back as they swap media duties, the centre back acknowledging that whatever challenges she has had in the club season just ended – which saw her get limited game-time for Reading as they plummeted towards relegation from the WSL – they paled next to what Kiernan had endured.
Mind you, she’s had added challenges – like trying to squeeze in her recent wedding in Greece to her partner Mona Lohmann, who she met during their playing days in Germany.
“Vera was heavily involved in my wedding plans, believe it or not. I don’t think there are many jobs where you have to ask your boss ‘what date can I get married?’ But in football, that’s what you have to do.”
Vera, Diane and Mona sorted out the dates, Caldwell, now happily married, arriving late to camp, fully focused on the World Cup, now honeymooning in Belfield.
Behind her, Kiernan is chatting some more with the media, admitting that her inclusion in the World Cup squad would be, well, a match made in heaven.
Meanwhile, frenzied cries of “KATIE!!” go up from the 1,200 school kids when captain McCabe strolls by, the 1,200 in the ground just to watch a training session a bigger attendance than Ireland would have attracted back in 2015 when McCabe made her senior debut.
These are mighty times.
