Forster: I had some really dark days
Ex-Celt aims to light up Wembley for Saints
FRASER FORSTER wants to complete a remarkable journey from the “dark days” of being a forgotten man to becoming a Wembley hero. The Southampton keeper, 33, made just ONE league outing in more than three years after being frozen out at St Mary’s. Now the ex-England man is out to deny fellow ex-Celt Brendan Rodgers and Leicester City in tomorrow’s semi. Forster fell out of favour under Mauricio Pellegrino, did not play under Mark Hughes, was loaned to Celts for a year and fell so far down the Saints pecking order that he didn’t even make the bench. But Forster refused to give up and has used the FA Cup as a route back to being Saints’ No.1 under Ralph Hasenhuttl. He said:
“I’ve had to wait and the FA Cup has been brilliant for that.
“But I’m not going to lie, there have been some horrendously hard days along the way and luckily I’ve come through the other side of that.
“Not playing was incredibly hard because you’re coming into training, but have no game at the weekend to aim for.
“I had just signed a new fiveyear deal but six months later you’re out of the team and 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 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 dark days, that’s for certain.”
Forster got back in after Covid KO’d Alex McCarthy in January and added: “We’re up against a fantastic team with a fantastic manager but it’s one game.”