Seamus: I never doubted return from injury hell

SEAMUS COLEMAN says he always believed he would return to the top of his game after the Republic of Ireland skipper suffered an horrific double leg fracture.

Tonight, the Everton full-back, below, is likely to play for his country for the first time a day short of a year since his leg was shattered in a challenge with Wales defender Neil Taylor during a World Cup qualifier in Dublin.

It has been a long road back but Coleman refused to even contemplate that he may not return.

“That never crossed my mind from day one or any way through the injury,” said Coleman, 29.

“I knew if I did everything I was told and the work I needed to do in the gym, that I’d be back on the football pitch.

“I’ve been back now for five or six games and I’ve felt very good.

“Hopefully I can do the same in the Irish shirt. But never for a second did I doubt that I’d be back playing football.”

Coleman is one of a handful of Martin O’Neill’s senior players in a new-look squad of 25 that flew out to Turkey on Monday. His inclusion has come as a significant boost on and off the pitch as the manager begins rebuilding in the wake of the failure to qualify for the World Cup. O’Neill said: “You talk about someone with a leg break getting back and I have to reiterate that when we saw him in the hospital in the first couple of nights, where he was really down, you felt an inner determination he would get through. That’s just his character.

“We as a group are delighted, the players are and certainly the management team very much so.

“If he can stay clear from serious injury, who knows what lies in store for him in the next couple of years?”