Republic of Ireland international Keith Andrews has stated that the life-threatening injury to teenage defender Shane Duffy last Friday has put his football career into perspective ahead of the nation’s friendly with Paraguay in the RDS tomorrow night.
Andrews joined Giovanni Trapattoni’s summer training squad with seven other established senior players yesterday but the Blackburn Rovers star has admitted that the injury to 18-year-old Duffy, which required emergency surgery to a ruptured hepatic artery, has made him see that his health is primary ahead of football.
“My mam was listening to the radio on Saturday morning and told me,” he said. “By all accounts he’s a lovely lad and he’s made a good impression in the last week on and off the pitch.
“The lads would like to go in (to hospital) to see him this week if he’s up to it and allowed to have visitors.
“The manager was on the record as saying over the last couple of days that it’s just football at the end of the day and that’s all.
“Someone’s life here was in danger and that takes priority over anything. Football was secondary in all this.
“It puts it all into perspective, doesn’t it? Okay, it’s the creme de la creme playing for your country, which I’m sure he will do, but if you don’t have your health you don’t have anything.”
Duffy is making a full recovery but he did fear for his life as he lost 3.6 litres of blood after the collision with goalkeeper Adrian Walsh at the Malahide training ground last Friday.
Andrews has been holidaying in Spain with his girlfriend for the last two weeks but is eager to get involved with the international squad and join the plethora of young players which Trapattoni has been inducting into the Ireland squad.
“It’s nice to get new people in the squad,” he says, “It’s obviously a very daunting experience for them, you want to see friendly faces. I’m well aware of what it’s like. It’s not easy the first couple of times.
“The manager (Giovanni Trapattoni) is open minded and doesn’t really care about reputations or where you’ve come from or where you’ve been. That’s worked out very well for me, but it means when you turn up for these trips you’ve got to put a shift in.
“I don’t want to be giving up my place and I’ll be here for every trip that I’m picked for.”
The other senior players who have linked up with the international squad are Robbie Keane, Damien Duff, John O’Shea, Kevin Doyle, Glenn Whelan, Sean St Ledger and Stephen Kelly.
Tomorrow night’s friendly with Paraguay at the RDS kicks-off at 7.45pm.
