YOU HAVE TO fight through the bad days in order to earn the good days.
Rianna Jarrett’s WhatsApp status – set in April 2017 – are words she lives by.
By the time she posted that, she had suffered three ACL injuries.
The third came less than 10 minutes into her Ireland senior debut in March 2016. She was 21 at the time.
Jarrett bounced back to fulfil her potential in the domestic league, stitch together a three-year professional career in England, and earn another 15 international caps.
But from Wexford to Brighton and London City Lionesses and back again, injury struggles have endured.
Three setbacks — a torn calf, damaged meniscus and an Achilles flare up — combined to sideline her for 12 months, and ultimately, led to the move home last January. She’s continued to be haunted by knocks and niggles, but is persisting with Wexford in the Women’s Premier Division.
Life is very different these days. Jarrett, who turns 30 in July, is back on the nine-to-five grind, working as an assistant facilities manager for Danone in Dublin. She is living in Bray, playing for her hometown club and between punditry, coaching badges and what not else, has plenty going on.
Returning to these shores was “difficult” and “a bit of an adjustment” at first, but she has found her feet once again.
“I’m looking at that next chapter,” the Wexford striker says.
Obviously, I love football. I’ve played it my whole life and I do think that I want to stay involved in football in some aspects when I do stop playing, whether that’s sooner or later.
“I’m just trying to figure out what life after football looks like.”
Jarrett is speaking to The 42 as a recipient of the Sky WNT fund. Her bursary will go towards completing her Uefa A coaching licence later this year.
Coaching appeals. Her interest was sparked while in college at IT Carlow and heightened while injured, but she parked her endeavours when her playing career took over once more.
Jarrett is missing the start of Wexford’s season with a minor calf tear, but is hoping to soon bounce back from an admittedly “poor” 2023 collectively and individually. Key to that will be rediscovering both fitness and enjoyment. She hinted at that as she departed London City.
That enjoyment appears to be returning for one. Wexford is home. She’s happy to be back after a whirlwind experience across the water.
“I first signed for Wexford when I was 17,” Jarrett says. “I was only a kid looking back on it and I had so many fond times with Wexford, but they also got me through the darkest times.
“I don’t think I would have been able to get through any of my ACL injuries without the girls and the management and the club as a whole. They’re absolutely phenomenal and they welcomed me back with open arms. They helped me get settled, helped me get back on my feet. They helped me move my stuff back home from the UK, look for a job, gym memberships . . .
“I wouldn’t have been able to settle back into life as quickly as I did without them and I’m so glad that I came back to play with Wexford. I definitely couldn’t imagine myself playing for any other team in the league here in Ireland other than Wexford.”
Jarrett recounts her time in England fondly, but feels “the chapter closed at the right time” as injuries took their toll.
Exhilarating highs, gut-wrenching lows. Ups, downs and everything in between. For better or for worse, it’s all part and parcel of sport.
Her attitude to the cards she has been dealt is admirable.
“There’s no point sitting here complaining about it — or even when it was happening, there was no point. It happened, you just have to have to get on with it. That is a good trait that I have.
Probably many other people would have given up a long time ago. And d’you know what, I probably should have, thinking about things, I’m like, ‘Am I crazy to keep trying?’ or, ‘Was I crazy to keep trying?’ But some of my best times and my best playing times came after I done my third ACL.
“Imagine I had to have stopped after the first or the second? I never would have achieved half the things that I have achieved. Obviously I’ll always be grateful for the people that got me through the hard times and it’s no different now.”
“I always say it,” she adds. “I learned so much about myself with my time off the pitch and I think that’s something that’s gonna stand to me for the rest of my life.”
The Ireland dream is currently on hold. Jarrett last wore the green jersey in October 2021, appearing as a second-half substitute in a World Cup qualifier away to Finland.
A combination of falling down the pecking order under former manager Vera Pauw and injury setbacks saw her international career stutter and she was a peripheral figure when the final World Cup reckoning rolled around.
She impressed as an RTÉ pundit through the latter half of the qualification campaign, before travelling to the finals tournament in Australia last summer as a fan with her girlfriend, Maria.
Of course, she’d rather be involved, but Jarrett is at peace with her spectator role. And of course, the punditry. It’s one positive to come out of her cruel run of injuries.
“It made the transition a lot easier for me. Obviously when I first started doing punditry and commentating, there was a slight hope that I was going to get back into the international set-up, so I was probably a little bit reluctant to say a couple of things.
“But it’s been over a year now. I know where I stand football-wise and I’m thoroughly enjoying the punditry and just hoping that the opportunities are going to gonna keep coming. I’m very excited for the Euro qualifiers.
“I’m their biggest fan. I still chat to a lot of the girls and see them. I went out to the World Cup and really enjoyed it. The biggest thing for me was that I probably knew months before the World Cup that there was very little chance of me getting back into that team. My disappointment had come and gone before the World Cup came around, which I’m so thankful for. I don’t know if I would have been able to enjoy the process if the realisation had to have been later on, closer to the tournament. There’s a couple of girls that the heartbreak was too raw and too soon, which is fair enough.
“But I absolutely loved supporting them and following them around Australia. Had the time of my life. I’m really enjoying the punditry, but even if I wasn’t doing the punditry, I’d still be at every game. I watched them before I played and I’ll continue to watch them long after I finish as well.”
What about between now and then though?
The international door is surely not closed yet?
Not necessarily, but Jarrett won’t sugarcoat the situation.
“For me, the biggest thing is I can’t stay fit,” she says. “I don’t know the last time I’ve had a solid run of games.
“Last season was so stop-start for me for so many different reasons, but I can’t stay fit and get a good run of games for Wexford so I can’t get to that level where I’m playing consistently, playing well but also in terms of fitness and performance levels, I’m struggling to get there.
I’m under no illusions, I’m not getting any younger. I’m 30 this year, and if you look at the last three years especially, I’ve struggled to stay fit for more than six months. So until that happens, I can’t be looking any further because I’m actually so far off it.
“But as I said, I’ve come to terms with that. Obviously I’d love to play for Ireland again, I’d never turn it down but I’m struggling to get to that level and that’s the ultimate factor.
“Until I’m at that level and proving myself worthy, it’s not going to happen. You look at the squad, it’s getting younger and younger and rightly so. The girls coming up are phenomenal.”
She stops to draw breath, before emphasising her point.
I’m fortunate enough that I did have a couple of good years with the Irish team and and I loved every second of it.
“Obviously, I’d love to be back in again tomorrow, but I’m realistic. I’m not delusional, I know where I’m at and I know the level is only getting higher and higher, and that gap is only getting bigger, unfortunately.”
You can bet all you have Rianna Jarrett will keep trying.
You have to fight through the bad days in order to earn the good days, after all.
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The Sky WNT Fund, returning for the third year, is a €25,000 bursary open to WNT players to aid their academic, professional and post-football career ambitions.
