There was a stirring moment at the weekend in the National Women’s Soccer League game between Gotham FC and OL Reign at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey.
With 70 minutes on the clock, Gotham made a substitution, the crowd of 7,534 rising to cheer the arrival on the pitch of Sinead Farrelly.
It was her first competitive appearance in football since September 2015.
As if it wasn’t already a memorable enough spell in the 33-year-old’s life, she was invited by manager Vera Pauw to train with the Republic of Ireland squad in Texas this week, where they are preparing for the first of two friendlies against the United States.
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Born in Pennsylvania, Farrelly remains eligible to play for Ireland, having only represented the States up to under-23 level, although she was once included in a senior US camp, making the unusual decision to decline a call-up for the next gathering because she hadn’t enjoyed the first experience.
All Pauw has said so far about the midfielder is that she will be assessed this week, that she hadn’t been included in the official squad because of how little football she has been playing.
Farrelly retired from the game in December 2016, at the age of just 27, having struggled with injuries, some of them sustained in a car crash. Her retirement statement detailed the...
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