Katie won’t be heading to the US for friendlies
A European champ with Arsenal but ‘noise’ around FAI has had an effect
Katie McCabe has revealed she will not travel with Ireland to the USA for two late June glamour friendlies as Arsenal’s newly crowned Champions League winner seeks some much-needed rest after a near non-stop two years with club and country.
And, as her side bid for an improbable four-goal win against a Slovenia side who thumped Ireland by that margin in Koper last February, she also outlined the toll prompted by the Euro 2025 play-off defeat to Wales last December, and its subsequent fall-out.
Critical
McCabe was critical of the FAI’s review process that also led to the exit of manager Eileen Gleeson and her assistant, Colin Healy.
“It hurt coming into the next camp. There was so much change and so much noise around the FAI and us as a team. And ultimately it affected me because we didn’t get to a tournament.
“I know we’re footballers but we’re also human and when you’re striving towards something that you crave so much as a team but then don’t achieve, it takes its toll on you. So that first camp was really difficult.
“It’s going to be difficult with the Euros on this July. It’s going to hurt. But we have to feel that. Keep striving to get better. And, obviously, World Cup 2027 is a big driving force for us.”
Ward hopes her side have learned the lessons of a Koper calamity when she was out-foxed by her enigmatic counterpart, Sasa Kolman, who received well wishes from Donegal manager Jim McGuinness following February’s stunning win.
“I’m going to concentrate on us and what we do. He can talk as much as he wants. My focus is on my team and how we set up. I’m confident we’ll be in a position that we can go and have a right go,” said Ward.
Aoife Mannion (quad) and Lucy Quinn (bug) are doubts for the clash with Slovenia.
No matter what transpires in Cork this evening, Katie McCabe will finish this campaign as a European champion. And she will finish her playing season too after confirming that she will not be participating in Ireland’s two friendly matches Stateside later this month.
Even if her club season finished in exultant triumph, it has been a physically gruelling campaign and, as with the international team she captains, there have been bountiful mental challenges too.
Both Arsenal and Ireland lost their managers in tumultuous circumstances but, while Renée Slegers somehow revitalised a side who had long conceded a league title tilt to embark upon a whirlwind European campaign – despite losing four times – Ireland’s transition under new leadership has been less certain.
Her international manager, Carla Ward, has spoken regularly, and yet again as recently as Friday, on how a hangover has afflicted the side’s fragile confidence since a harrowing Euro 2025 play-off defeat to Wales last December.
Yesterday, she broadly touched upon the manner of the toll it has taken on the squad as they faced renewed difficulties in this Nations League B campaign, starkly highlighted when they faced tonight’s Cork opponents last February in Koper and were utterly humbled 4-0.
Suffice to say, that the review process, conducted by a man who dismissed the last management team and recruited the new one before then leaving himself (Marc Canham), now appears to be of no use to the players.
McCabe herself has previously revealed how she was not formally involved in the review process, merely asked for ‘input’, which is in itself remarkable.
The difficulties Ireland have faced in this campaign, heightened by several retirements, when they have produced wildly inconsistent displays in attempting to reshape their system and style of play, clearly illustrate the toil of transition.
How could they have possibly planned for the future if there had not been a deep and meaningful appraisal of their past?
It now appears the players have been effectively reviewing the Euro 2025 campaign among themselves in the weeks and months since, in the absence of anyone else to do it properly for them.
Dignified
McCabe can only hope that perhaps a dignified performance tonight, even if an improbable overhaul of Slovenia’s fourgoal deficit is probably beyond them, can finally lay those old ghosts to rest.
“Speaking of myself, it hurt coming into the next camp,” she said in Cork ahead of tonight’s final game of the Nations League campaign, and her final outing of a season that began way back in August.
“There was so much change, so much noise around the FAI and us as a team. And ultimately it affected me because we didn’t get to a tournament.
“I know we’re footballers, but we’re also human and when you’re striving towards something that you crave so much as a team but then don’t achieve, it takes its toll on you. So that first camp was really difficult.
“Obviously, being around the other girls in the last few months, you get to open up and chat through things, talk about what we could have done better.
And then there are changes of players. “But there comes a time when you have to move past it. Just go, ‘OK, that happened. Let’s just see how we can improve now going forward.’
“So look it’s going to be difficult with the Euros on this July. I’ll probably turn my telly off. I won’t be watching it. It’s going to hurt. But we have to feel that. Keep striving to get better. And, obviously, World Cup 2027 is a big driving force for us.”
McCabe played in Páirc Uí Chaoimh last summer in the famous 3-1 win against France after an almost 12-month season from the 2023 World Cup. She had one week off before returning to club duty and, in May 2024, had to endure a trip to Australia with Arsenal before a quick dash to resume two sets of summer internationals which ended in mid-July.
This season started in August with two friendlies in the USA and, as Arsenal had to pre-qualify for the Champions League, their season had an immediate intensity and no other teammate contributed more minutes than the 29-yearold Dubliner.
Little wonder she is physically and mentally fatigued, even if her astonishing metrics in Turkey last Friday betrayed that fact.
“It’s the timing of the fixtures as well, like what we had to do last year all through the summer where you’re finishing a season and you’ve to kind of rest but kind of keep fit for the next block of games.
“It’s hard mentally and physically from a periodisation point of view to do that. So the timing of the fixtures needs to be looked at as well in my opinion.
“It’s the whole calendar. I don’t know who’s in charge of it, but it definitely needs to be looked at.
“What it will create over time and we’ve already seen it in recent years is burnout in players and major injuries. You’ve got world-class players that will be sitting out of tournaments through injuries and we don’t want to see that.
“We want the best players in the world playing at tournaments on the biggest stage. I just hope it doesn’t cause too much more harm to us as players going forward.”
Meanwhile, with FAI women’s head Hannah Dingley soon to exit, a vacuum remains at HQ, though Ward remains unperturbed. “Right here and now, does it affect us? No. I think I’m very good at utilising the right people at the right time.”
Getting the best out of her players on the field is her pressing priority.