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Shane Duffy almost died when he was 18. A freak training ground injury suffered with the Republic of Ireland squad caused horrific internal damage.
‘I was gone at one stage,’ Duffy recalled. ‘My liver, my heart, everything stopped. The doctors in Dublin saved me.’
So everything the 29-year-old Brighton defender has experienced since probably needs to be viewed with that perspective.
In recent times, though, that has been hard. Duffy has been on the floor again.
Shane Duffy built himself back after a nightmare loan at Celtic to play a key role for Brighton
Devastated last year by the sudden death of his father at the age of 53, Duffy then spent a miserable and lonely loan season at Celtic. What should have been the living of a childhood dream transpired to be the worst year of his career.
Marooned from his wife and two children during various stages of lockdown, Duffy’s form fell off a cliff. By the time he drove the seven hours back to Brighton last May, he had absolutely no clue what his future held.
‘It was definitely the lowest I have been,’ said Duffy. ‘It was hard enough dealing with what had happened to my dad but I also didn’t get to see my kids for a year because I couldn’t fly to Ireland to where they were. It was a lonely time and maybe it did affect me on the pitch.
‘Things weren’t going well for the team or me at Celtic so I was probably sitting there on my own doing a bit of over-thinking and that was difficult.
Duffy couldn’t see his children due to the lockdown and had a miserable season at Celtic
Now the defender is in the Brighton team under Graham Potter consistently in the top-flight
‘I try to take a lot from what happened. I think my biggest regret is that it didn’t go well as it meant so much for me to go there. I will probably always live with that. But I have come out the other end.
‘If I hadn’t got that low maybe I wouldn’t have bounced back like I have. It was a difficult year…
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Source : dailymail
