There were some horrendous days along the way but I’ve come through the other side
‘GREAT WALL’ FORSTER STANDS TALL AGAIN AFTER TOUGH WAIT
LEICESTER V SOUTHAMPTON 6.30PM TOMORROW, BT SPORT
FRASER FORSTER will complete a remarkable journey from the “dark days” of being a forgotten man to potential Wembley hero.
Before completing a fairy-tale comeback, the 33-year-old Southampton goalkeeper had made just one Premier League appearance in more than three years after being frozen out at St Mary’s.
Forster fell out of favour under previous boss Manuel Pellegrino, did not play under Mark Hughes, was loaned out to Celtic for a year and slipped so far down the pecking order at Saints that sometimes he did not even make the bench.
But Forster, an unused member of England’s squad at the 2014 World Cup, refused to give up and has used the FA Cup as a route back to being Southampton’s first choice under manager Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Forster said: “I’ve had to wait and the FA Cup has been brilliant for that.
“But I am not going to lie, there have been some horrendously hard days along the way and luckily I have come through the other side of that. For me, not playing was incredibly hard because you’re coming into training and you’ve got no game at the weekend to aim for.
“I had just signed a new five-year deal here. Six months later you’re out of the team and then a year later you’re not even making squads so it was very tough. It was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel at times.
“Managers, they pick the team and if you’re not their cup of tea or they don’t rate you, as a keeper it’s hard to get back in.
“There have been some very, very dark days, that’s for certain.”
It is hard to imagine that Forster, who joined Saints from Celtic for £10million in 2014, could drop down so far given he had won six England caps and was nicknamed The Great Wall in Glasgow after famously defying Lionel Messi’s Barcelona side in the Champions League in 2012. But he was dropped after a 5-2 defeat at Tottenham in December 2017, played just once the following season, on the penultimate day in a 3-0 defeat at West Ham, and found himself stranded with little hope.
Forster said: “You have just got to adopt the mindset that you can only do what you can do.
“It was a tough decision in the summer.
“We had a fantastic year last year at Celtic. I had another year back there which I absolutely loved but I made the decision that I wanted to come back here.
“The manager has been absolutely brilliant with me. He knows what he wants from his goalkeepers, what he demands, and that is clear across the pitch.
“Everyone has got real clarity on what he wants from each position. I came back, worked at that, and had to obviously bide my time. The FA Cup was perfect for me to get a few games and that run has really helped me get my place in the team.”
Forster worked hard on his kicking and distribution and, since stepping in when Alex McCarthy missed the Liverpool game in January through Covid-19, has never looked back.
He now has a chance to be a hero in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final clash with Leicester at Wembley.
“This is a great opportunity. We’re coming up against a fantastic team with a fantastic manager as well,” said Forster.
“But over the course of 90 minutes it’s one game, anything can happen and it would be fantastic if we could progress into the final.
“It is set up so nicely to do that. Both Leicester and us will be thinking, ‘Let’s go and get into a final and see what happens’.
“It should be a fantastic day and a great game as well.”