'For a long time I struggled to go, yeah, I actually need help'

But in her head it was a different story.

“Two days before Vera made the official announcement, my fate was sealed,” she wrote. “My last session didn’t go well – I couldn’t run pain free – and I knew then the game was over. I wasn’t going to be 100 percent to face Australia.” “It was like a switch for me after Albania,” she explains. “I had to change my focus and change my outlook on why I was in the stand and what this camp was about. It wasn't until I left the camp, after speaking to Eileen at the back end of the camp, that I realised what it was about.

“I think for a long time as a player I struggled to go, yeah, I actually need help,” she explains. “You’ve got that trust issue where, if I speak to you, are you going to tell the manager that I don’t feel good, and then the manager is not going to play me because he thinks you are not mentally right?

“A lot of the time I think of the worst-case scenario, when I just need to break things down and not think so big. He was like, we need to put you in bubble wrap now - that was after the World Cup - just protect you as a person. Never mind the football and never mind anything else, it’s about you. She is settled now and is back playing regular first-team football. It’s a club on the up and she is ready to challenge next season not just for promotion to the WSL, but for the title.

“When we got drawn into the group with England and they said games were going to be in the Aviva, I thought, right, I need to make the squad. Then I was in the squad and I thought, I need to make the bench at least, to just have the opportunity to warm-up on the pitch.“Then, and you couldn’t write it, just as I’ve come on, the ball went out for a throw-in for us. I was like, this couldn’t get any better. I ran over and Katie just threw me the ball.

Republic Of Ireland Women's Football Team FIFA Women's World Cup UEFA Nations League Vera Pauw Aviva Stadium Eileen Gleeson Liverpool Women FC Everton Women FC England Women's Football Team

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