“To say I’m proud would be an understatement.”
Patrick McClean has been following the Republic of Ireland his whole life and has shared in so many downs that the ups always feel so much sweeter.
McClean, father to Irish midfielder James, is a man still trying to get around the fact that his son is playing for that very team he cherishes on one of the biggest stages in football.
“People ask how I feel. How do you feel when you win the lottery?” he remarked to BBC Radio Foyle.
Ireland look set to call on McClean – a sub last night against Sweden – for Saturday’s crucial encounter with Belgium. Jon Walters looks to be severely troubled by an Achilles’ injury and we await further updates from the FAI.
Not the news anybody wants to wake up to https://t.co/8TgilKPrxy
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 14, 2016
Patrick McClean describes just how surreal it is to have so much resting on his son and his team:
“You wake up in the morning and you have to nip yourself to say ‘This is actually happening. This is real’.
“If someone said to me 10 years ago that my son was going to be playing for the Republic of Ireland, in the Euros, in France, playing in the Premier League and has achieved all his wee dreams… All he said to me growing up was ‘Dad, I’m going to play football, I’m going to play football professionally’.
“I’d say ‘It’s a pipe-dream son’ but he’s gone and done it and he’s over achieved. For me, right now, I’m the proudest, proudest person in the world. My son is in France.”
On Saturday, McClean will be tasked with bringing pace, guile and steel to the Irish attack.
He will be up against Hazard, Lukaku, de Bruyne and so much more but he will have a proud father and a hopeful nation behind him.
