Jeff Hendrick believes that the Republic of Ireland have nothing to lose at this year’s European Championships and Martin O’Neill’s side will draw on the experience of beating Germany going into the games against Sweden, Belgium and Italy.
The Derby County midfielder admitted that the experience of the victory over the World Cup holders, followed by the play-off win over Bosnia-Herzegovina are matches that will live long in his memory, and he is confident that Ireland can mirror those performances in France this summer.
"Belgium have a special group of players and you know they are going to be a tough team," Hendrick told RTÉ Sport.
"Italy coming into tournaments are always hard to beat and Sweden with (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic, they are going to be good as well.
"But we have nothing to lose playing against three big countries like that. We will be looking forward to it and we will take confidence from what we did in the group.
"Taking four points off Germany, the world champions, is special, so hopefully we can mirror that in the tournament against them big countries."
And while the former St Kevin’s Boys player knows that he has to prove his fitness ahead of the squad selection, as well as deal with an upcoming court case in relation to a charge of violent disorder, Hendrick is confident that he will be fit and ready for France and will return to first team action ahead of schedule as he recovers from a thigh strain.
“I think it’ll be a bit quicker than they initially said so hopefully I can get a few games under my belt to prove my fitness,”
“I’ve got to get fit, stay fit and hopefully get a good run of form over the last few games of the season and look forward to it, if I’m selected, obviously.”
And while a fit Hendrick is surely a mere formality when it comes to the manager choosing his final 23 for the plane to France, the Derby County man recalls when Martin O’Neill took the job - at the time the midfielder was injured and had to return to the under-21 set-up.
Hendrick believes that the hunger he possessed to get back to the senior squad was key to becoming a regular in subsequent O’Neill selections.
“When they first came in, I was injured, and I went back and played a game for the 21s and I think that helped me. Obviously being with the 21s is great but I wanted to get back to the senior team and it made me work very hard for the end of that season to get back in their plans.
“I found a bit of form near the end of that season, which was the play-off final season, and since then, I played a few games in the friendlies and got in all the squads and I’ve been delighted with that.”
Hendrick is growing in confidence in the green of Ireland and believes that he is getting better the more caps that he picks up.
Hendrick’s role in the build-up to Jonathan Walter’s winner in the 1-0 victory over Georgia was one of the stand-out moments of the campaign and the midfielder feels that he needs to try those sort of things to showcase his ability.
“Thankfully, I have set up a few goals but that has got to top them,” said Hendrick.
“I think I had given the ball away three times before that so I thought, ‘I have to do something’, and it paid off and we got the win.
“You have got to keep trying things on the pitch. That is what all the good players do. The more I play for Ireland, I’m becoming comfortable and starting to play more like myself, so hopefully I can set up more goals like that.”
Hendrick admits that he was a Manchester United fan as a child and that David Beckham was one of his first idols but in terms of influence, the player that stood out for the Irish midfielder was World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane.
“Some of the things he did (on the pitch). You talk about the goal I set up but I think that he did something like that in every game and he is right up there as one of the best players who has ever played the game, in my opinion.”
Jeff Hendrick was speaking at a visit to the the Deaf Village Ireland, in Cabra, to promote DeafHear new hearing aid service and also met with Deaf Sports Ireland to encourage young soccer players with hearing loss to play for the Irish Deaf Soccer team.
