The year of enforced exile might yet cost him Glenn Whelan the opportunity of joining Robbie Keane, Kevin Kilbane and Steve Staunton in the Ireland’s exclusive ‘100 club’. Yet even as he gets to grips with being released by Aston Villa over the weekend, the midfielder doesn’t sound like he has given up hope.
Mick McCarthy has hinted that he will pick much the same line-up against Denmark that started the win over Georgia. If so, that would mean cap number 87 on Friday for the Dubliner. And at an age when most players have already drawn a line under their involvement with the national team, Whelan makes it abundantly clear that it is extending his time with Ireland that is first and foremost in his mind just now.
He was a little disappointed at the weekend to get off a plane after a short family break to find two phone messages waiting for him; the first from a journalist looking for a reaction to the news he had been released by Villa, the second from the club’s manager, Dean Smith, suggesting that they needed to talk.
Whelan, though, sounds no more bitter about it than he has done about being “retired,” last year by Martin O’Neill. Managers, he knows, are entitled to make their calls and at 35 there can be few complaints when they decide to go in that fabled “different direction”.
“I appreciate everything Martin done for me,” he insists. “At the time, he phoned me and asked me to come in for a farewell. To have that chance, I was more than grateful. Martin’s vision was bringing in younger lads and going a certain way.
“I respected that and was more than happy to come in and play. But it wasn’t a case of me coming in and rubber-stamping it, saying: ‘That’s me finished, I’m done,’ I’d never do that. I’ll be in a wheelchair and I’d be wheeled out if I had to.”
McCarthy was barely back in the job when he got in touch to see if Whelan was willing to return and the midfielder told him he would jump at the chance as long as it wasn’t just to watch from the sidelines.
Having already established that he still has something to offer, he is now making calls on the next, potentially final, phase of his club career. To maximise his chances of staying involved with Ireland a couple of early opportunities to head overseas for a sun soaked payday have already been knocked back.
“I’ve had one or two calls about the possibility of doing that,” he says, “but then when I spoke to the manager about coming back here, he said was that he wants to keep the players in his squad playing at the highest level for as long as possible. So I think if want to hang around and keep playing for Ireland then that means putting the foreign thing on the back burner for the minute.”
Outside observers might be forgiven for feeling he might not have the same options in even a year’s time. But McCarthy has spoken with a deep sense of respect for the way Whelan has worked to extend his career and the former Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City player is entirely serious about having quite a few more seasons left.
“I try to do a little more just to stay on top of things,” he acknowledges. “There are certain aspects behind the scenes . . . I probably stay in the ice bath that little bit longer or make sure that I get that massage but I’ve been lucky with injuries, I don’t carry anything so I just train as hard as I can every day and that’s got me so far.
“I’ve played with some lads who have gone on to play until they were 38 or 39. I was at Manchester City at the time that Stuart Pearce was there and I think he was still playing top level at 39 or 40. I think for some reason, you get to a certain age and a lot of people just think: ‘Bosh, that’s you done.’ But that’s not for me.
“Listen, I won’t hang around. I won’t be like a bad smell. I’ll know that when I’m done, I’m done but if I can make an impact, some sort of impact . . . if that’s pushing Callum (Robinson) on, pushing somebody on then I am more than happy to stick around. I feel fit, I’ve been lucky with injuries. I’ve never been quick enough to get a hamstring . . . I’m okay on that side of things.
“Most of the lads who I have spoken to closely who have retired through injury, they have said that in the end their bodies have just let them know but I think I missed one game this season for Aston Villa this season, I hurt my shoulder. Other than that I have been available for every game.”
Not too many of those games would have involved coming up against a Christian Eriksen and Whelan is well aware of how the match up might be regarded in some quarters. Still, he sounds fine with that; defying the sceptics is nothing new to him at this stage.
