HE APPEARS to have recovered but for a while yesterday a slight knock to Joe Murphy gave rise to the prospect of Ipswich Town-bound goalkeeper Brian Murphy sitting on the bench for tomorrow night’s World Cup play-off game against France.
The Waterfordman, who leaves Bohemians with two league and a couple of cup winner’s medals in his back pocket, comes across as entirely unfazed by his sudden, though many would argue overdue, elevation to the international panel. But when it was put to him that he might be just one more injury away from starting at Croke Park, even he made it clear that he views the whole Ireland thing as a somewhat longer-term project. This weekend, he suggests, he’ll be as happy as anyone to see Shay Given take his place in the Irish goal.
“To be honest,” he says, “I never thought of getting into the squad until maybe I got to England and was playing and doing okay. This week has come very quick for me, I’ve only had a couple of days to think about it and prepare for it. If I don’t make an impression this week, another chance mightn’t come. I’ll be doing my best to make a good impression.
“So I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m one injury away from playing, hopefully that doesn’t happen. Shay is a world-class keeper, you need your best players to succeed and he’s certainly one of them. I’m here to make an impression in training and hopefully push on.”
To date, there has been no word from his future club boss, Roy Keane, regarding the call-up and little enough interaction with Giovanni Trapattoni who, he readily acknowledges, has bigger fish to fry just now than trying to smooth his integration into the squad.
“I probably wouldn’t expect him (Keane) to be in touch because he’s not my manager yet. But it gives me a good boost going over there and even for the club, when people say: ‘Who’s this fella coming in?’ The fact that I’ve had a call-up to the squad is something that will stand to me.”
On Trapattoni, he says: “He just said enjoy yourself. There was no big sit down, there are more important things this week than sitting me down to have a chat. I’m here to enjoy training and make an impression.”
As it happens, he already knows a few of the players well enough. He joins a Waterford contingent that includes Eddie Nolan, Stephen Hunt and John O’Shea while he has crossed paths with a few more during stints with Manchester City and Swansea. He hopes that over the next couple of years he can cement a new relationship with them, as a fellow international.
For now, though, he admits that he is simply trying to grab the odd moment between training and replying to messages of congratulations and to enjoy being involved in the build-up to such a big occasion. “It’s just nice to get a call-up, I never expected it for a game like this.”
