IN THE AFTERMATH of Ireland’s elimination from Euro 2016, images of supporters applauding the team’s efforts from the stands in Lyon featured prominently in the media.
One photo in particular captured the mood accordingly. Despite being narrowly beaten by a talented French side who were two years away from conquering the world, the Irish fans who travelled to Parc Olympique Lyonnais were proud of how their team represented them.
In the crowd, an Irishman — snapped by INPHO photographer James Crombie – defiantly held a tricolour aloft. Yet as those around him acclaimed Ireland’s international footballers on the pitch, they were oblivious to the presence of one among them.
“I was watching the Italy match at home when Robbie Brady scored the goal to get Ireland out of the group. I went straight onto Skyscanner and booked a flight for myself. I didn’t even know if anyone else I knew was going,” recalls Stephen O’Halloran.
“I went to Euro 2012 — which didn’t go well for Ireland — so I really wanted to be there this time. I ended up meeting a few friends down in Lyon. I’m still in contact with a few of the Irish boys so Keiren Westwood helped me to get some tickets. It was an unreal experience — 5,000 Irish fans in among 50,000 French — and we gave them a run for their money too.”
By his own admission, the Ireland fans in O’Halloran’s vicinity that day could be forgiven for not recognising that they were in the company of a man who was capped twice by the team they were there to support.
Like several other members of the squad that Steve Staunton assembled for end-of-season friendlies against Ecuador and Bolivia in the USA, O’Halloran’s career as a senior international footballer was crammed into a four-day spell in May 2007.
The Cork-born left-back was just 19 at the time. He still hadn’t made a first-team appearance for Aston Villa, but O’Halloran gave a good account of himself with the Ireland U21s, to the extent that he ended 2007 as the country’s Player of the Year at the grade.
While a breakthrough at Villa had yet to materialise, he did make a good impression as he gained experience of competitive senior football during a loan spell at Wycombe Wanderers.
Most of his outings for the club came in League Two, but he also played all 90 minutes for Wycombe as they held Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea — who were Premier League champions — to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of a League Cup semi-final.
When he returned to his parent club prior to Chelsea’s 4-0 win in the second leg, O’Halloran’s hope was that his spell at Wycombe would help him to force his way into Martin O’Neill’s plans at Villa Park. An international call-up certainly wasn’t in his thoughts.
“The reserve manager at Aston Villa, Kevin MacDonald, was part of the Irish set-up with Steve Staunton,” he explains. “He rang me one day and said I wasn’t going to be heading to the Hong Kong Sevens with Villa at the end of the season, which I was absolutely raging about. I’d gone to it in the previous two years so I was looking forward to it.
“Instead he said ‘you’re coming with me and the Irish team’, and I was in complete shock. I knew I’d had a positive season, between the time at Wycombe and the games I played with the Irish U21s. But I was gobsmacked. It was a massive honour.”
Playing alongside the likes of Kevin Kilbane, Stephen Hunt and Kevin Doyle, O’Halloran started at Giants Stadium in the 1-1 draw with Ecuador. A few days later he was introduced as a half-time substitute against Bolivia at the home of the New England Patriots, a game that also ended 1-1.
“When you’re coming through the ranks, you’re just trying to keep climbing,” he says. “Getting to the top for that moment by playing for your country is very surreal. I was trying to take as much of it in as I could. My Ireland jerseys and caps are hanging up at home in my mam and dad’s now.”
Upon his return to Aston Villa following his international bow, O’Halloran was sent out on loan in order to continue his development. First there was a stint at Southampton, before he headed to Leeds United in February 2008.
Having been named in the starting line-up, he was set to make his debut against Swindon Town. However, an injury he sustained during the warm-up forced him to return to Villa without making a single Leeds appearance. It could also be argued that the setback was the catalyst for the course of his entire career being altered.
O’Halloran underwent surgery for a ruptured anterior cruciate knee ligament but managed to make a relatively swift recovery. By November he was back in action, this time during a loan spell under Roberto Martinez at Swansea City. But there was an even bigger obstacle coming down the track.
In his third appearance for Swansea, O’Halloran suffered the same injury again. For a sportsperson to endure one ACL tear during an entire career is unfortunate. Doing so twice in the same calendar year is almost unheard of, yet that was O’Halloran’s reality.
“When I went back to Villa after that summer when I played for Ireland, I was obviously on a massive high,” he admits. “Playing international football seemed like a big step in the right direction. Then it just all came crashing down with the injuries.
“The rehab went perfectly after the first one and I was back in six months. But then I re-ruptured the ligament at Swansea and I didn’t play again for nearly two years. It was definitely a tough time, although I was lucky that the set-up at Villa was so good because I might never have played again otherwise.
“You do start to think: ‘Why me?’ But then when you look at the big, wide world it puts everything into perspective. There are people going through far worse things than having a knee injury so you’ve just got to get on with it.
“It’s obviously challenging mentally but the support network of family and friends, especially people back home, was really important to me. Yeah, it was hard to come back from, but at that stage I just wanted to be able to say to myself that whatever happens in my career from here, I’ve given this 100%.”
When O’Halloran was finally ready to play again, his contract at Aston Villa was about to expire. Instead he resumed his career 20 miles down the road at Coventry City, who were still a Championship club at that point.
O’Halloran was keen to ensure that the change of scenery would afford him the opportunity to kickstart his career after a difficult few years, but another injury problem forced him to contend with a six-month wait to make his debut for his new club.
Although he played 15 times for the Sky Blues after recovering from a slipped disc in his back, he was on the move again at the end of the season. League One club Carlisle United was O’Halloran’s next destination but again his progress was hampered, with a knee cartilage issue proving to be particularly debilitating.
In the summer of 2012, O’Halloran was released. A 24-year-old footballer without a club, he flew out to the European Championship in Poland to support some of the Ireland players he was able to refer to as team-mates just five years earlier.
His managers at both Carlisle and Coventry issued similar parting remarks which aptly defined him. He was “a pleasure to have” according to Carlisle boss Greg Abbott. “He’s been a terrific lad” insisted Andy Thorn at Coventry, but — and this was the critical caveat — “he has just been very unfortunate with injuries.”
Crucially at this juncture, O’Halloran was mature enough to recognise that his downward trajectory was ominous for his prospects of relying on football to provide him with a comfortable living. A two-year descent from Aston Villa in the Premier League to cutting ties with a League One club convinced him to prioritise the future over the present.
“I’m lucky to have a really supportive family and they were encouraging me to have a think about my education for after football,” explains O’Halloran, who left Ireland for Aston Villa at the age of 16, shortly after completing his Junior Cert exams.
“It’s a short career in football and a lot of lads spend a lot of time trying to figure out what they want to do next. I didn’t want to just be a journeyman footballer with nothing else. I wanted to keep playing football while also looking beyond that.
“Football is a cut-throat business where it’s really hard to stay at the highest level. You’ve got to respect the guys who do manage to do that. But there are so many players who start off at the heights but then get the fall from grace and they have nothing to back it up. I didn’t want to be another one of those stories.”
O’Halloran went on to spend a long-overdue injury-free year at Conference club Nuneaton Town in the 2012-13 season. More significantly, however, he also reverted to part-time football in order to pursue a degree in physiotherapy at the University of Salford.
While completing the four-year course, he continued to play competitively. He moved from Nuneaton to Stockport County and then on to Salford City, for whom he scored against Hartlepool United when the club made it as far as the second round of the FA Cup, as well as winning promotion.
After graduating in 2016, he’s now employed full-time at a private hospital in Manchester. So often the recipient of physio treatment during his days as a professional footballer, the tables have turned for Stephen O’Halloran over the past two years.
He’s keen to point out that he remains determined to make the most of what’s left of his career in football, but the long-term career path he has established now takes precedence.
When Salford City and Stockport County increased their training schedules, O’Halloran opted to move on as he can no longer afford to commit to more than two sessions per week plus a game at the weekend. FC United of Manchester in the National League North (the second tier of non-league football), who he joined this summer, has therefore been a perfect fit.
“I suppose I’ve experienced a fair few ups and downs over the last 10 years,” he says. “That’s why I’m trying to keep enjoying my football now. Playing full-time again was my ambition in the past but I’ve been qualified as a physio for nearly two years now so that obviously changed things.
“Having the two commitments is a tough balancing act but it’s no different to what a lot of the League of Ireland lads are doing. The standard of football is good as well, so I’m enjoying it. I want to look forward now to doing the physio and the football hand-in-hand, and then maybe at some stage I’ll get into doing physio within the game. That’d be one of my ambitions.
“Joining FC United for this season felt like the ideal opportunity to keep working as a physio while also playing for a good club. I’ll see what happens but I’m really enthusiastic about it. I’m 30 now too so I’ll be looking at moving back to Ireland in the near future. I might be getting in touch with a few League of Ireland managers to see what’s going on.”
A brief glance at Stephen O’Halloran’s footballing CV might hint at a tale of frustration and regrets, but the tone of his recollections will tell you otherwise. While an international debut before his 20th birthday promised a bright future, he has attained peace of mind from the knowledge that no corners were cut in his attempts to scale the hurdles he encountered.
“I’m fortunate that I have so many good memories that I’ll always have with me,” he insists. “Obviously playing for Ireland stands out. The Wycombe game against Chelsea would be up there as well.
“It was Mourinho’s team at their peak. I remember committing a foul on Michael Ballack and thinking: ‘Jesus, he was just playing at the World Cup’. That’s definitely a good one to have. When you look back, stuff like that makes you realise that you didn’t have a bad career at all.
“There are a lot of lads who go over to England like I did and never make it. More guys have bad luck than good luck. I feel very fortunate to have had the experiences I did. I had a lot of tough times but for me they’re out-weighed by the good times. I’m grateful for the career I’ve had, and the career I’m still having.
“I knew it was going to be very hard for me to be the same player when I came back after being out injured for two years. In the top few divisions in England as well it’s not easy to stay at a high level if you’re not playing enough games or getting a little rub of the green.
“I can honestly say, when I look back on my career, that I’ve given it 100% with every club I’ve played for. I came down the leagues and have spent the last few years in non-league football, but I gave it everything I had along the way. I know that for a fact. That’s why I’ll never have regrets.”
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