It's been a difficult time for Alan Judge over the last couple of seasons.
Just as the Brentford FC attacking midfielder was beginning to establish himself for Ireland, the Dubliner suffered a leg break in April 2016.
But such is the esteem that he is held in, Judge is back in the Ireland squad for this month's friendly against Turkey despite having just returned for his club.
He joined us on the Keith Andrews Show and was surprised by how quickly he has been called back into the Ireland senior fold.
"That just gave me a sudden uplift," Judge told Keith of that moment when he saw his name on the Ireland squad list.
You can watch the full Keith Andrews Show on YouTube:
"Seeing my name in that squad and I'm thinking, 'Martin must like something about me'. It gave me great confidence.
"When I've gone with the Irish team, I've always enjoyed doing the training there. No one holds back. You have to show what you can do so hopefully I'm looking forward to it again.
"As I said, this is probably the most frustrating time through the injury because you're just on the verge of everything. You're coming on, you want to start games."
He also spoke about the long and difficult process involved in coming back from his injury which included two operations.
"Within six weeks [of the second operation] I was back walking," he said.
"My wedding was coming up so I made a beeline that no matter what, I was walking down that aisle on the day of that wedding and it just felt so much better. It still took time. I had a good trip out to Philadelphia. I went on saw a specialist and had a good two weeks there, came back good and I kicked on from there."
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