Originally Posted by
The Times UK
James McCarthy: I would never hide away and say ‘no I don’t want to play’
Midfielder is keen to return to the Ireland set-up but knows he must first establish himself at Crystal Palace
Three years on from when he last played for Ireland, James McCarthy walks into a room at the Crystal Palace training ground looking slimmer and trimmer than ever before. It is something of a false anniversary; he did after all make the field of play for the game against Wales in March 2017 only to pull up in the warm-up with a recurrence of a hamstring injury that had become an international incident involving Martin O’Neill, Roy Keane and various Everton managers and was a harbinger of one of the issues which would bring down that Ireland management team.
McCarthy is keen to talk about the future and the fact that he sees himself resuming his international career when he can get back to playing regularly again, but he is also happy to clear up one or two questions which linger from that difficult period.
“Nobody forced me to do anything, either at Everton or Ireland,” says McCarthy. “When I was fit I wanted to play and unfortunately at that time I was stuck in a rut with injuries. I would play one or two games and get injured and then be out for six weeks, then come back and play two or three games, so it was just a difficult spell.”
Firstly Roberto Martinez, who signed McCarthy from Wigan, and then his successor as Everton manager, Ronald Koeman, skirmished with both O’Neill and Keane over the availability of McCarthy, with Seamus Coleman also caught in the crossfire.
Among the memorable quotes in that severe bout of gunboat diplomacy was one from Keane saying he was expecting Everton players to “crawl in the hotel door” when reporting for international duty, while Koeman accused Ireland of “killing” McCarthy, before matters came to a head in that Wales game.
“It was awkward for me — difficult,” said McCarthy last week. “Everton didn’t want me to go to with Ireland one of the times. I was injured. Then I tried to do the warm-up and I felt my hamstring go, it was the same one. If I am fit I want to play. I felt fit that day and I had done a few fitness tests over the week and I felt good. But if I felt fit I would say that I am fit. I would never hide away and say ‘no I don’t want to play’.”
McCarthy managed to work his way back into the Everton team under Sam Allardyce. Then, out of the blue, disaster. In a match against West Brom in January 2018, Salomon Rondon attempted to shoot on goal only to strike McCarthy powerfully on the back of his right leg instead, resulting in a break of the tibia and fibula which was so bad that the skin was pierced by the broken bone. It was an injury even worse than the one which Coleman had suffered while on international duty the previous year and as his teammate was returning to fitness, McCarthy leaned on him for support.
“Seamie said to make sure you get home and spend some time with your family. Switch off from football. There were dark times during that injury when I could hardly get off the bed. I was basically bed-bound for six weeks and it was a long road, but after you get back walking, jogging and cycling and doing a few things you start to think there’s light at the end of the tunnel and it is not too far away.”
As it happens McCarthy has been fit for nearly a year now, but much of that time was spent unsuccessfully trying to win round the latest Everton manager on the block, Marco Silva, who made it clear that McCarthy wasn’t part of his plans.
Palace manager Roy Hodgson has long rated him highly and James McArthur has been a friend since he played with him at Hamilton as a 15-year-old, so McCarthy’s first move down south made sense. With him have come his partner and their seven-month-old son. Palace’s steady start to the season has meant that it has been difficult for McCarthy to break through and so far he has made only one start in the Premier League, when Luka Milivojevic was suspended. Clearly, club football is the priority for McCarthy at the moment. When he was named in the provisional squad for the last two competitive games, a conversation was had with his namesake Mick and the midfielder didn’t make the final list.
“I spoke to him and he understands that I need to get back playing again,” McCarthy says. “I want to play week in week out and hopefully we can qualify for the Euros next summer with the game against Denmark, but I want now to stay injury free, get a run of games here at Palace and ensure that once I get in the team I can stay in the team.”
That probably means that when Mick McCarthy cuts down his latest squad for the game against Denmark, James McCarthy won’t be in it. It is a frustrating position for Ireland supporters especially since the New Zealand friendly a few days before the Denmark game, could be used to sharpen up McCarthy.
Still such is the dearth of quality in Ireland’s midfield at present that the manager can only hope that McCarthy rediscovers his best form from his days in the Premier League at Wigan Athletic and is then prepared to resume his Ireland career, which has been stop-start from virtually the word go.
One thing is certain; the Ireland manager and Palace will work things out without the public slanging matches which marked McCarthy’s international career when he was at his last club. The medical theme in the Ireland camp was later repeated when it came to the fitness or otherwise of Harry Arter and Jon Walters, and it contributed to the demise of the O’Neill/Keane reign.
Mick McCarthy will avoid falling into that trap, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be all over the moment when James McCarthy returns.
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