JUDGE DUTY
Brentford midfielder sets a new benchmark for himself after 2 year injury nightmare
ALAN JUDGE got Ireland back to winning ways with his first senior goal and revealed it erased the pain of his injury nightmare.
That it was the winner – at the ground where his dad Dermot won the 1990 FAI Cup final with Bray Wanderers when Alan was the two-year-old mascot – just added to his giddiness.
Judge beamed: “This is what I’ve been waiting for. When we were celebrating James Mcclean was giving out to me saying I took it off him.
“But I said he should have played it to me earlier – we were just messing. It was brilliant and all the work of the last two years was worth it for that moment
“The fact I’ve scored in my first home game back for Ireland is unbelievable.
“I know it was only a friendly but for someone who has been out as long as I have – as Seamus Coleman will tell you – it means a lot.”
The Brentford midfielder has been through the ringer after two years out with a double-leg break that required a second operation.
His 2016 injury – against Ipswich – came at the worst possible time as he was fresh from making his Ireland debut and pushing for Martin O’neill’s Euros squad.
When Coleman suffered a similar injury against Wales, the pair met regularly to talk through their issues with Judge admitting the ‘therapy sessions’ helped with the mental battle.
But Judge returned to club action in January and made his Ireland return off the bench in the March friendly defeat away to Turkey.
And yet, having made O’neill’s provisional squad for these Celtic, France and USA games, he wasn’t named in the reduced squad after the testimonial game in Glasgow.
“I don’t know, you’d have to ask the manager,” said Judge of the surprise omission. “But I must have been doing something in training as he brought me on the last two games. “If you told me at the start of January that I’d have another three caps to my name, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
While unsure of his standing ahead of the Paris trip, only to get the call-up when Eunan O’kane called off injured, Judge had the presence of mind not to book a holiday.
Having grafted for so long to make an international breakthrough, he was in no mood to jeopardise his future prospects with a fit of pique.
The holidays could wait.
Rather, he kept training on his own and also with Bees team-mate John Egan in the hope of a lifeline which duly came.
And Burke says his goal at Aviva Stadium has given him all the motivation he needs to drive on and surpass the levels he reached before.
Judge said: “The one thing I wanted to show was that I wasn’t a quitter. Having a setback like I had, with a second operation, you could easily throw the towel in.
“I was always in constant contact with Seamus Coleman. Me and him went through it together and it was get up, go again and see what happens.”
A brief getaway with the family aside, Judge won’t be easing off the gas this summer as he wants to kick-start pre-season in top shape.
Nailing down a place in O’neill’s squad for the Nations League opener against Wales in Cardiff in September 6 is a priority.
Judge said: “You have to be patient and when I was injured, I found that the most frustrating part. I don’t want to go into complete shutdown this summer because I need to keep going – I feel bad when I don’t keep going. It
eats away at me.”