Robbie Brady should be fit to train when Ireland commence their final Euro2016 countdown after touching down in France later today with the Dubliner recovering well from the back problem he sustained in the course of domestic duties during his weekend off.
“I just went to lift my little girl out of the bath the other day and as soon as I bent down to pick her up I just felt something go a small bit. I got a night’s sleep then and when I woke up I was a bit tight and stiff. Since then it’s been gradually getting better until now. I feel okay and like I say I could probably have joined in training this morning but just sat it out for another day to let it settle. But as of tomorrow I’m ready to crack on with the preparations and getting ready for the game.
“Initially, when it happened, I was thinking; ah no, of all times not now but it settled down straight away. It’s not ideal to be picking up knocks and injuries coming up to the first game but I’m fine. I’ll be 100 per cent ready to go tomorrow.”
Key figure
Ireland’s supporters will be relieved to hear it with the Norwich City man having become one of the absolutely key figures in this side. Against the Netherlands, the importance of his delivery from set pieces was readily apparent and if he can produce that sort of consistently high quality ball into the area in Ireland’s three group games, the Irish goal threat will be increased exponentially over Poland four years ago.
“I want to perform well first of all and if I can help the team with delivering a good ball that will be perfect,” he says, as the subject of his vital goal from play in the play-off game against Bosnia and Herzegovina is mentioned. “But I feel as if I can offer a bit more than just set pieces, although it is a big part of the game. I’ve been working on them and hopefully it can help me do well
“I like to attack and that was good for me to go and show something like that [the goal in Zenica] because in a big tournament it’s always good to feel like you’ve played a little part of helping to get us here. I like going forward, I like to play football. I’m enjoying it.”
For all that, he acknowledges, he has worked hard to make the most of the gift he has for striking a deadball, staying on after training to work by himself and practising endlessly to improve. Since he was a kid, he says, he would also be drawn to the way the best free takers on TV lined things up and connected.
“Everybody always sort of interested me in the way that they hit the ball,” he says. “Set pieces now are a big part of the game . . . and I think that everyone who has ever been able to hit a ball [there’s a] different technique. You watch and try different things but I think I’ve found what works for me. It’s about just trying to perfect that as much as I can and I’m quite happy with how I’m hitting them going into the tournament.”
Recent form
The recent form of
Shane Duffy
has, perhaps, given the manager a way of capitalising on Brady’s gift with the Dubliner admitting that the Blackburn defender’s size and strength makes him the ideal target in a crowded penalty area.
“When you have somebody like Shane in the box it fills you full of confidence that you just need to get it in any sort of any area and he’s just going to going to go and put his head on it,” he says.
“He’s definitely one of the best I’ve seen at going and attacking a ball. I think it’s priceless now in the game for someone to be so aggressive and big. I know he’s definitely one of the lads that you enjoy hitting or trying to hit with a ball.”
His ability to do that should, one suspects, give him Premier League options for next season although the other players have been telling him, Roy Keane admits with a laugh, that after successive relegations with Hull and Norwich whatever club he might join will probably go down.
Best to enjoy the Euros then.
