Hibs can help my cap bid
Hibs star Jimmy Jeggo says he hasn’t given up hope of playing for the Socceroos again.
The Easter Road midfielder has 15 caps already and featured in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers before moving to Edinburgh from Belgian side Eupen.
And at 31 he believes he can force his way back into the Australia squad alongside Hibs team-mates Martin Boyle and Lewis Miller.
Jeggo admits the potential for gaining international call-ups is one of the advantages of playing in Scottish football.
He said: “I’ll never say never with the national team. My focus is here on Hibs but you never stop hoping.
“I know this league is being watched because there are a lot of Aussie boys here.
“I had a good period when I was playing regularly but there could have been more caps.
“It comes down to manager’s decisions so all you can do is your best. That’s what I’m doing at Hibs.
“If that leads to a recall it would be absolutely amazing.”
Austrian-born Jeggo has been a regular fixture in Nick Montgomery’s Hibs side since the manager took over from Lee Johnson.
His career has taken him from Australia to Austria, Greece and Belgium so far.
But he has never felt intensity like life in Leith – and that’s why he’s loving it.
Jeggo said: “We’re so lucky here in Scotland with the amount of big clubs and big games we have.
“In a short space of time you can create special moments and memories.
“Just winning an Edinburgh derby is such a huge deal here. People remember them.
“That’s what’s special about here and it’s something
I love.”
Jeggo’s Oz days
He couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.
He had locked himself in to avoid waking a team-mate who was asleep.
The pain was acute. At first it was his shoulder but it had now travelled to his hip.
He was 16 years old, 9000 miles from home and alone.
Why was he in so much agony? All he wanted to do was play footbal l but his body just wouldn’t let him.
When he eventually returned to Australia, nothing could have prepared Jeggo or his family for a devastating diagnosis.
He had leukaemia. And it was serious.
The following eight months should have been about his developing as a player and achieving his dream of becoming a professional.
Instead, it was all about staying alive.
Five days at home were followed by 10 in hospital. On repeat.
The blasts of chemotherapy would wipe him out.
Yet incredibly, whenever his kid brother Luc would come to visit, he’d be amazed to see Jimmy doing sit-ups at the side of his hospital bed.
When he los t weight through the treatment, he’d order his parents to bring him a McDonald’s to try to put it back on.
When he felt f it enough to kick a ball on his days off chemo, he’d train at Melbourne Victory – even when he’d lost his hair.
Resilience? When you consider what Jeggo has been through, most footballers don’t know the meaning of the word.
The Hibs midfielder sometimes wonders if he could have done more in the game.
Then he has to remind himself that he might not have been here at all.
For him to represent the clubs he has played for – as well as earn 15 caps for his country – is nothing short of incredible. And that’s why now, at 31, he’s savouring every moment of life at Easter Road.
His illness and the ordeal his family faced 15 years ago will never define Jeggo. But t he ment a l fortitude he gained from the experience has helped shape his l i fe and career ever since. In an e x c lu s i v e inter v iew w i th MailSport, he said: “I had just been called up to the Australia Under-17s national team.
“And one day I started getting these really odd pains in my shoulder. They would come and go but it was excruciating.
“For three or four days I couldn’t sleep because of the pain.
“Physios thought it might be down to me carrying a backpack on one shoulder.
“But when I travelled with the Under-17s on a tour of Germany and Belgium I started getting the same pains in my hip.
“I was stuck on the other side of the world and remember sitting in the bathroom at 3am in tears.
“When I got back there was a process to find out what was going on [with my body].
“As we delved deeper into it we had to rule things out through several biopsies.
“Gradually, we knew it was something more serious.
“At that age you don’t really think of anything on a big scale.
“But one of the things they were really concerned about was bone cancer.
“They sent tests to the US and when they came back we were told it was leukaemia.
“People ask how I coped with it. And I think if it was 10 years later then I would have struggled a lot more.
“I ’ d have had a g reater awareness of what it all meant. At that age ignorance was bliss.”
Jeggo was fortunate to have a strong family unit around him to provide support. His dad Martyn worked for the United Nations.
He met Jimmy’s mum Tina – a football-mad former Blackpool FC season-ticket holder – while they worked in Austria before moving to Oz.
Along with Luc, who was inspired by his big brother’s courage, they were constantly there to support him.
He said: “My parents were amazing. Obviously, they were upset – I was only 16.
“My mum was probably more emotional . My dad is quite resilient.
“How he handled things really had an effect on me.
“I was trying to work out how to deal with it and he was someone I looked up to.
“I went into hospital on Boxing Day 2008. That Christmas wasn’t the best one I have ever had. I had five treatments.
“There’s always a chance with leukaemia that once they blast it, if it doesn’t work your only option is a bone marrow transplant.
“And that’s hit and miss. It either works or you’re in real trouble.
“I knew everything was at risk. And yet, all I could think of was football, football, football.
“It sounds ridiculous now – but I treated it like I was doing rehab from a knee injury.
“You block things out. There are probably things I put to the back of my mind.
“The chemo would wipe me out. I’d get really sick and I lost a lot of weight.
“Every thing gets put in perspective. You do start to wonder: ‘Right, what does my life