THERE HAVE NOT been too many success stories involving Irish internationals in 2018.
Over the past 12 months, wins, goals and even shots on target have been at a premium, with this dismal form leading to the departure of Martin O’Neill and his management team.
One exception to this negative trend, however, has been Alan Judge, especially when you consider what he went through in the two years previous to the past 12 months.
The Dubliner is back playing football regularly again, which by no means looked a certainty amid the darkest days of his rehabilitation.
9 April 2016 is a day that will undoubtedly be etched in the memory for the remainder of his life.
Judge was 27 and in the form of his life at the time. Every week, he seemed to get a mention in various match reports for either a goal or an assist, and the form led to him being one of three footballers nominated for the Championship Player of the Season. He had recently made his Ireland debut and while yet to establish himself in the side, appeared in contention to feature in the squad for Euro 2016.
Yet those hopes were dashed in an instant, after just eight minutes of Brentford’s encounter with Ipswich. The seriousness of the situation was obvious immediately amid Luke Hyam’s poor challenge, which he subsequently apologised for, on Judge.
A stretcher appeared and paramedics rushed onto the field, while the game was stopped for several minutes as they attended to Brentford’s star man.
It was later announced that Judge had suffered a double leg break.
The subsequent recovery process was gruelling. At times, Judge admits to having doubts about whether he would ever get back playing again. The entire 2016-17 campaign was a write off. He had been linked with a couple of Premier League clubs before his injury, and even while he was out, there was talk of a switch to Newcastle, but nothing materialised. His injury meant the talented attacking midfielder never got the full rewards his incredible form merited at the time.
Even more so than the arduous physical battle that required him to learn to walk again as he recovered from injury, in addition to having to spend a considerable period undertaking no-contact training, Judge says the mental challenge was the toughest aspect of his rehab.
“I’ve been smacked on my leg so many times now, so that’s not a problem,” he tells The42. “Where I was, the position I was in before, what could have been. My chance in the Premier League was probably taken away from me, which is fair enough. I have to move on from that.
You just keep thinking, what could have been. But the hardest bit was the frustration of not getting games and getting myself back into the team. You know you can do it, but some days in training, you think: ‘I used to be able to do that better.’ You do have days like that. But you just don’t let it get to you. You have to believe in yourself. And I felt that’s what I have done.
“To come back from something like I have, I’m quite proud of myself the way I’ve dealt with it. I just want to get stronger and stronger now, and I want to show that I can produce like last time.”
In December of last year, 20 months on from his horrific injury, Judge made his return to football with Brentford’s second team.
On 6 January, 2018, the player made his first appearance for the senior team, coming off the bench for the final 20 minutes of an FA Cup tie with Notts County.
The 30-year-old’s progress since then has been gradual. He made 14 appearances for the Bees in total last season, though only three of those were starts and just one game saw him complete 90 minutes. Perhaps wisely, Brentford were easing the Irish midfielder back into first-team action with a clear sense of caution.
This season, however, he continued to find himself on the bench. Judge was feeling good physically, but much had happened in his absence. Brentford were playing with a different style and he was expected to prove himself all over again.
It was on 2 October for a match with Birmingham that finished 1-1 in which the Irish midfielder made his first start of the season. Thereafter, he experienced another spell on the sidelines.
Finally, he was given the nod to start again, under new boss Thomas Frank, following Dean Smith’s departure to Villa, on 24 November against promotion-chasing Middlesbrough.
Brentford lost the match 2-1, but Judge scored — his first Championship goal in nearly three years. The manager was suitably impressed and he would go on to start the next two consecutive matches — another significant milestone following a turbulent period.
We speak on the eve of Judge’s side’s match with Swansea. He has just had a chat with Frank in which they agreed that the star would be on the bench, due to what he describes as “fatigue in my hamstring,” after playing three games in a row for the first time in nearly three years.
He emphasises that his role this season, predominantly coming off the bench, has been simply to do with managers preferring other players ahead of him rather than any fitness issues, insisting he feels “physically great” and is optimistic he can build on the recent progress he has made.
I’ve come through three big games in eight days, so we’re just being a bit cautious with me — you don’t want to turn something tiny into something big,” he adds.
“I think the manager wanted to use me this weekend, but we both decided to be a bit smart and not put myself in jeopardy.”
In the end, with Brentford finding themselves 3-1 down at half-time, Judge was called upon to replace Josh McEachran at the start of the second half. They scored again after 69 minutes, and a comeback looked possible, but ultimately, they slipped to a fourth defeat in five games and descended ever closer to the relegation zone (the team currently sit 18th in the table after beating Bolton 1-0 on Saturday, with Judge appearing off the bench for the final 10 minutes).
Judge and his team-mates now appear to be facing a challenge of a different kind. At the time of his injury, they were challenging for promotion, and even when Frank took charge halfway through October, they were just a point off the play-off places. However, the situation has taken a turn for the worse of late.
The Irish international attributes this slump to “silly errors” at the back, and adds: “When we play football, we can be one of the best teams in the league at moving the ball.”
A versatile player, Judge was being deployed primarily as a number 10 before his injury. This season, however, has seen him invariably feature on the wing.
“I am a number 10, or I can play central midfield, so I feel that’s where my best position is,” he says.
“I’m not an out-and-out winger where I’m going to run by someone — I never have been. My game has always been get the ball moving and hopefully do one or two-touch football. When I play there, that’s what [the manager] expects from me and then others who play there, he probably expects them to run with the ball. I think he likes having that bit of difference, so he can keep the opposition guessing.
“The team’s moved on from two years ago, where they played with a number 10 and I was the number 10. I know number 10′s my position, but I’m happy to play on the left if the manager asks me to.
I’ve had a long enough time not playing, so I’m not going to complain when I get told I’m playing on the left.”
At international level, there have also been some encouraging signs for Judge. After appearing just once prior to his injury, he has lined out four times for the Boys in Green since his comeback — substitute appearances against Turkey, France, USA and Poland.
The US encounter was unquestionably his standout moment thus far in a green jersey. After being introduced in the 89th minute, he made a swift impact and slotted home the winning goal in the dying seconds.
The game was a forgettable end-of-season fixture, but for Judge, the symbolism of the moment transcended the match’s low-key nature, with his subsequent impassioned celebration signifying relief as much as joy.
“After the game, my family were going mental and I was like: ‘I’ve just scored a goal.’ I knew I’d scored for Ireland — don’t get me wrong, it was the best feeling ever — but I’m not one to get excited over something like that.
My family were nearly having a party. I think it was just that everybody saw the amount of work that I’d done and the frustration of those last two years came out in the celebration. I just felt like I had been to hell and back. That’s the kind of feeling I had.
“I’d only played once for Ireland before I was injured and then you start thinking: ‘Will I even get that chance again?’ One of my aims was just to get back for Ireland again, but the fact that I’ve played more and I’ve scored — not many people can say that they’ve scored for their country. I know it might be a friendly, but it’s the way I am as a person [that it means so much].”
Judge is not the only Irish star to have suffered rotten luck with injuries in recent times. Seamus Coleman also missed most of 2017 after his own leg break in the Ireland-Wales World Cup qualification encounter.
The pair were already familiar with one another having played together for the Boys in Green at U21 level, and they kept in contact during their respective rehabilitation stints.
“We spoke quite frequently. He texted me, when he saw me score my first goal [since recovering] and I texted him, because I was pleased to see him score his first goal since he’s been back.
“He has James McCarthy [who also suffered a leg break] there at Everton — I’m sure [Seamus] is helping him get through his broken leg.
“It helped that we knew each other before. It was good to have contact with someone who’s been through the same kind of stuff as you.
I had to learn to walk again. A lot of people think your leg just heals up and you get up and go again.
“Seamus was the same. He probably had to learn to walk again. We had to take small steps at a time.
“Everybody’s broken leg is different. I know Seamus was a year, I was nearly two years. But it was still good that we were able to bounce ideas off each other and tell each other how far along we were and everything.”
Judge laughs when asked whether their conversations revolved around boring, technical injury-related topics, explaining: “It was more like: ‘How much weight are you putting on? How much are you eating?’ Stuff like that.”
Despite the USA goal, Judge was subsequently left out of the squad for Ireland’s important Nations League matches with Wales and Denmark, though he understood the decision, given his lack of game time at club level.
And although Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane have received some criticism in the wake of their Ireland departure, Judge has “nothing but good words to say” about the duo, who were both in regular contact with him during his recuperation.
New boss Mick McCarthy, meanwhile, knows Judge relatively well already. The first match the Barnsley native attended after his appointment as Ireland manager was Brentford’s 3-2 loss to Sheffield United, in which Judge completed 90 minutes.
And the player came close to signing for McCarthy a few years back during the latter’s time in charge of Ipswich, while the Ireland manager was also on the opposition bench the day of the leg break, promptly getting in touch to wish the star well on his recovery following the moment of serious misfortune.
Judge is consequently hopeful he can do enough to win a place back in the Irish squad, and provide the team with the type of creativity they have been sorely lacking over the past 12 months.
Coming back from my sort of injury, your confidence is low,” he says. “It’s not low, because you’ve been playing bad, it’s low because you haven’t played in such a long time. Building your confidence up takes such a long time. I’m gradually getting from zero to near 100 now.
“Every game I’m playing, I’m getting more and more confident, and I’ve seen that in my performance. Confidence for me is one of the main things, especially coming back from such an injury, as it would be for anybody. You need to have that confidence and belief in yourself, and I think that goes a long way.”
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