IN SPITE OF his surname, Alan Judge has not been frequently visited by justice.
He missed Euro 2016 through a horror leg-break months suffered a couple of months before the tournament, and would ultimately miss 20 months of football. That injury came at a particularly bad time: flying high near the top of the Championship with Brentford, Judge was subject to significant Premier League interest.
He has battled his way back, however, and scored an emotional winner against the United States in June of last year. It proved to be Martin O’Neill’s final win as Irish manager.
Judge made his greatest impact for Mick McCarthy off the bench in Copenhagen the following June, winning and delivering the free-kick from which Shane Duffy equalised against Denmark.
His joy was short-lived: as the Irish players celebrated the 1-1 draw in front of supporters, after the game, Judge lay stricken between them having broken his wrist in a late challenge with Kasper Dolberg.
He was groomsman at a wedding two days later, so he had to face further bother in fitting his cast through the arm of his suit.
Judge endured a somewhat troubled summer, but now stresses that it is all behind him.
“I had a stop-start summer”, Judge told a press conference today, “with a lot going on personally and with interest from one or two Championship teams.
“Yeah, it took me a little while to get my head around things. As I said, personal reasons with stuff going on with my daughter, but I feel like I’m at the end of that now and getting back.
“When I’ve come away with Ireland I’ve always felt I did alright, and that’s the reason I’m beginning to get back into the groove.”
Judge joined Ipswich Town midway through last season and couldn’t help them complete an improbable escape from relegation, and in spite of interest from elsewhere, remains at the club. He is playing pretty regularly for a side now top of League One, having started seven games and made a further five appearances from the bench.
Now he is among the Irish camp that will build to a steady but deafening crescendo. Thursday’s friendly with New Zealand acts as the prelude to an effective Euro 2020 play-off with Denmark on Monday.
The All Whites’ clash offers Judge a chance to build up minutes to prove himself worthy of making up for lost time.
“I’m looking forward to it, and hopefully to adding another cap. It gives everybody a chance to impress and you never know, it might change the gaffer’s mind for Monday.
“I know Monday is a big game, but the New Zealand game is first, so you have to treat it like a proper game, like it is, so I think everybody is just gearing up for Thursday and then we’ll switch to Denmark after it.”
It’s pretty difficult to get an in-depth read on New Zealand. Their continental competition doubles up with World Cup qualification and only fills some of the yawning, four-year window between World Cups, and given the cost in bringing players and staff together, they haven’t played a game in 18 months.
Burnley striker Chris Wood is among their most recognisable names, while Judge has been training with New Zealand defender Tommy Smith at Ipswich. The Irish camp were afforded a chance to see their opponents up close on Monday, when their training was switched to a pitch adjacent to Ireland at their Abbottstown HQ when they found their booked pitch at Wayside Celtic was waterlogged.
Nonetheless, the big business of the week is the latest clash with Denmark. Judge was recovering from injury at the time of that wretched 5-1 World Cup play-off defeat two years ago, but remembers it nonetheless.
“I was still injured at the time, back in England watching the game. It’s hard when you’re not playing, but I felt for the lads as I knew how much they had put into the campaign.
“It was one of those nights. I know everyone looks back to what happened that night, but we are aiming to get to the Euros so I don’t really think what happened that night will be on our minds.”
That said – finally getting his chance to play in the competition has been lingering among his thoughts.
“It has definitely been on my mind. When the gaffer first brought me into the squad I was thinking, ‘It’s a great chance to get to the Euros.’
“I feel we’ve had a good campaign and it’s coming down to Monday, and having missed 2016, I’ll do everything to get there.”