Aoife Mannion of Manchester United has claimed she is very relieved to be over her injury worries that kept her out of the World Cup last summer.
Mannion, a native of Birmingham, was one of the names in contention to make Vera Pauw's side in Australia and New Zealand but suffered a medial ligament injury in the months before the tournament.
The 28-year-old explained that she managed to remove the knee brace before the World Cup squad announcement was made. She was hopeful of still making the squad under Pauw, and she even flew over to Dublin to speak with her. In the end, the decision was made not to bring Mannion to Ireland's first-ever Women's World Cup.
"I was in a knee brace because I did my MCL. So basically, I was waiting for that knee brace to come off. The specialist needed to have a level of assurance from feeling the knee that it was going to be okay," she said this week.
“And so we thought at that point that it would be four weeks, and it ended up being six, which doesn't sound like a lot of time, but in the run-up to the World Cup, two weeks is a lot of time. The day that I got the brace off was actually a couple of days before the manager was going to be announcing her squad. She was going to be making a decision.
“So I flew over and spoke to her; we had a really good and long conversation in a studio apartment in UCD, and at the end of that, the selection decision was made, that it wasn't going to be the direction she was going to go in, and so that was the short and long of it, really.”
Aoife Mannion(Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
This wasn't the first time that Mannion had suffered a serious injury. The Irish defender has also twice ruptured her ACL. When asked about the mental process of overcoming her last injury, the medial ligament injury that prevented her from getting on the Ireland plane, Mannion said that it was a tough battle and that she is now happy to be on the right side of now.
“The timeline seemed to get longer and longer,” she added. “I’d had no experience with that because, in the past, I’d known how long. Every time I’d go for a scan, we’d expect the healing to be a certain way, but the reality was slightly different. That was difficult.
“There were a few moments of thinking, "Oh my goodness, where are we going here? What’s the gameplay?" Such is life that a few months passed and things kind of swung around. In December, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been on the grass for a few months, but it's been a real slow burner. I’m very relieved because this was a tricky one.
Mannion is now back and was part of the Ireland squad for the game against Italy. He will also be part of the team to play Wales. When asked how she felt about receiving a text from Ireland's new boss, Eileen Gleeson, Mannion claimed she was really happy to return to Ireland duty.
“Usually in football, when you see a name on the phone, it’s not good news,” she says ahead of Ireland’s first game of a big 2024.
“Usually, the positive news is more run-of-the-mill, an email or text. My heart went a bit low because I thought she was obviously letting me know that I'd not been picked for selection. I was surprised and pleased. It’s precious to be involved with national teams. On the back of the year I’ve had, I’m really happy. It feels like a fresh start.”
