Aaron Connolly says that his love for the game is back again, and he's determined to fight for his place on the Irish team and on the Brighton team.
The Galway man burst onto the scene in 2019 when, as a 19-year-old, he scored two goals in Brighton's win over Tottenham Hotspur but since then, his star has fallen.
Among other issues such as injuries and missed chances, Connolly was sanctioned by his club for breaching Covid-19 restrictions while, after a stagnant two year spell, he claimed that 'if I kept associating with people I’d been associating with before, I would have completely gone off the scale."
'I needed to get away from the circle I was in,' he continued.
The 22-year-old has certainly done that by moving to Italy, where he plays with Venezia on loan and the forward has played in five of their games this season. It was this change in attitude that convinced Ireland under-21 manager Jim Crawford to call him back into the squad for their crucial Euro play-off matches with Israel and that decision was vindicated last night.
Connolly didn't score, but he did come very close and after a lively, sharp and energetic showing, he was named as the man-of-the-match.
"I loved it," he said afterwards.
It's been a while. Certain things have gone on but to play in front of this crowd, a big crowd, a big game, to play with the boys as well, I loved every minute of it."
"I said it in an interview a couple of months ago, I've got my love back for the game again. When the love goes, it's hard to perform on the pitch to try and do your best every day. So, I've gone to Italy, discovered that love for the game again - even though the pre-season nearly put me off it. No, it helped me, and you could see it out there that I'm fit, and I'm hungry to get back with the Ireland first team and to get back pushing at Brighton as well.
"I guess those missed chances sums up the last year and a half of my career really but once one goes in for me, I'm hoping they'll all start coming again.
"To be honest, I've no idea if it was inside or not. I don't see why not. We were the much better team for the ninety minutes. Their goal could have derailed us but we kept going and I thought we dominated again. Unfortunately, we conceded but I think we'll be full of confidence going into the second leg."
https://twitter.com/RTEsoccer/status/1573402176101253143
Here's hoping the best is yet to come.
