In international terms he's spent much of the last few years just learning to walk, but as he prepares to make his 19th appearance in an Ireland jersey tonight at Lansdowne Road, Mark Kinsella reckons he is ready to start doing some serious running for his country.
It's only a little over two years since the Charlton midfielder got the call from Mick McCarthy, but few players can have become more important to the manager of their national team in so little time. In fact, the 28-year-old has been making up for lost time since making his debut in a friendly against the Czech Republic, clocking up nine appearances out of 10 in the recent Euro 2000 qualifying campaign and looking set to hit the 20 mark by the end of the year.
"It makes a difference all right," says the Dubliner, "because for the first 10 games or so you're hoping you play well enough to keep your place. Now, when the lads meet up I'd be hoping to play - which isn't to say that I'd ever think of taking my feet off the gas or anything."
Kinsella's growing sense of security is something that McCarthy has been talking up over the past week or so, with the Ireland coach extolling the virtues of being able to name unchanged teams because of the confidence it brings to his first choice players.
Kinsella himself is becoming very comfortable being known as one half of the immensely successful international midfield partnership he has forged with Roy Keane, even if there are one or two things he would like to do to confirm his arrival on the scene.
"I'd love to score a goal," he laughs before admitting that tonight's game against Estonia is just the sort of fixture when he hopes he might break his duck. With more to worry about in defence in Amsterdam and Lisbon, he says that he enjoys the "greater licence to get forward" he is given at Lansdowne Road, a venue where the strength of his all-round game has already made him a firm favourite.
Much more important to him than getting off the mark this evening, though, is a desire to ensure that the Republic build on their fine away draws. And the midfielder has few doubts that he and his team-mates can take the required three points.
"Hopefully we can just carry on where we left off from the group stages last time," he says. "Really we have to because Portugal and Holland look well capable of beating all of the weaker teams in this group home and away. After doing so well against them, they're going to be saying the same thing about us, but now's the time to start proving that it's true."
A win would certainly provide another boost to the Irishman's confidence as he heads back to Charlton before the weekend. Despite the club's comparatively tiny resources, the Londoners are currently in sixth place in the Premiership.
Having been up and down with the club before, Kinsella knows well how hard it will be to maintain the early momentum.
"We have some huge games coming up and it's important that we keep on playing the way we have been," he says. "Obviously I'm desperate that we stay up because playing against world class players with Charlton is great, just as it is to be playing against the likes of Figo or the De Boers when I come away with Ireland."
For the moment, though, Charlton can wait. Kevin Kilbane and Ian Harte have already scored against Estonia's goalkeeper Mart Poom this season and tonight, Kinsella reckons, it's time he added his name to the list.
