Less than three days after playing her last game for Wexford Youths, Claire O'Riordan was back in pre-season.
It was a sign of the commitment MSV Duisburg would come to expect from the Irish defender. Already, there was fire the belly.
With the Limerick native adding the usual ballast in defence, the title-chasing Wexford side had no problem getting over Galway WFC last July. But goodbyes were to follow, O'Riordan soon heading for the industrial city on the Rhine.
"I knew that I wanted to play for Wexford for as long as I could," the Irish international remembers. "They were my family, my best friends. And there was nothing better than playing football with them and going out and helping them for however long that I could."
The lure of the Bundesliga, however, was too great to ignore. And before spending any longer weighing up options, O'Riordan was fastening her seat belt and waiting for take-off. A new life beckoned.
It was the first time I was on an airplane by myself. Other than that it would have been with my family or with the Irish team. So I was quite nervous about that. I was nervous but I was really excited. I was entering into a professional environment. While it was nerve-wrecking, I was going over there to do my best.
It was my first trial, you could say, with a professional club so I didn't put too much pressure on myself. If they wanted me - brilliant. If they didn't - OK, no bother, I'll go again. Thankfully, not being too stressed about it, I was able to come over, do what I just did best and was offered a position.
The jump was massive. In Ireland you're probably training two or three times a week with your club. Over here in Germany I'm out five or six times a week training - sometimes I'm training twice a day. So it does take your body a lot of time to adjust to the new demands you have put on it. It is a lot on the body, it takes some getting used to and it's something my body is still getting used to.
Already, her journey had been a vertiginous one, having been largely unaware of possibilities for women in the game until her late teenage years. For all her talent, it wasn't until she started studying in Carlow IT that her eyes were opened.
As far as she was concerned, junior football in Limerick was her ceiling. She had dreams but that's all they were - hazy ambitions confined to the imagination.
It's every footballer's dream growing up - either male or female. They see football games on the tele, whether it's in the Premier League or at home in the Airtricity League, and they want to play football full-time. And I learnt a lot about the women's game when I went to IT Carlow as a student.
Because I didn't even know about the women's national league when I was playing junior in Limerick. I got on to John Flood and I went down to Wexford Youths where I started playing my club football. As I started to hear about the girls playing over in Arsenal, Louise Quinn over in Sweden at the time, players were playing around the world. It was amazing.
It was something I didn't exactly think I could do. As I progressed and I made the World Student Games in South Korea and I got a call-up to the Irish senior squad, I was like: 'OK, I've got this far so maybe I can make that jump.' And then when Colin [Bell] came in, I was very much for it.
Bell, the Irish manager, would prove to be a pivotal link in the 24-year-old's career. Coming from a Bundesliga environment, he was an invaluable resource when O'Riordan began to toy with the idea of moving to the continent. Thomas Gerstner, her current manager at Duisburg, conveniently enough, played under Bell during his playing career.
Heading for terra incognito, that familiarity was somewhat comforting though nothing was yet guaranteed.
Colin was a coach for a few seasons in Germany. He was involved with SC Sand where my national teammate Diane Caldwell plays. But he was only there for a short while before he applied for the international job with ourselves. Obviously, Colin is very well known because he was a very successful coach over here in Germany, winning the Champions League with FFC Frankfurt.
But while blending into the sporting environment was seamless; doing the same in society is taking time. Her German vocabulary is "alright";"building sentences", though, has plenty of scope for improvement. Smalls steps.
I couldn't believe it when I came over. Even when my family came over for their first visit, I told them there was nothing opened on a Sunday. So I was like whatever you need now get it on a Saturday. And surely to God, my sister forget to buy the baby's nappies and we were down to the last one on Saturday. So we had to go on an adventure to the train station on the Sunday. Obviously it's a different country over here, a different culture. I've adapted to it now, really.
With her contract already extended to next season, provided the club maintains its place in the Bundesliga, a return home anytime soon looks unlikely.
Home comforts are still appreciated all the same, most notably getting the chance to watch family and friends on the GAA pitch. But her former life as a dual-star GAA star had to be permanently curbed as progression to the top of another code took precedence. And, in many ways, Duisburg has become home. Even if she has only spent a brief time there.
Moreover, if the curve of development continues at such a steep trajectory for the Limerick woman, there's no knowing where she could end up. From Newcastle West to Duisburg to...well, nobody knows.
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