Megan Campbell has had more than enough painful setbacks in her career to take nothing for granted.
The Liverpool defender is enjoying an injury-free campaign in the Women's Super League and is thankful for it. That is a privilege the 30-year-old has not enjoyed for large chunks of her career.
Last February she returned to the Ireland squad after a hellish two-and-half-year absence, a hiatus that would make even the toughest characters question their international future.
Plagued by knee and ankle injuries, Campbell had to work very hard to claw her way back into the fold. Now it's impossible to imagine she won't be on the plane to Australia and New Zealand for the World Cup this July.
Indeed her phenomenal long throw-ins may prove an invaluable asset in the group games against Australia, Canada and Nigeria, something Campbell acknowledged when talking to the media from Ireland's Marbella training base ahead of Wednesday's friendly against China.
"It's nice to be on the pitch every weekend and flying fit. I'm thankful for that."
"We'd be silly to not try and take advantage of the opportunity we have," she said.
"Obviously you’ve got the likes of Louise Quinn and Diane Caldwell who are giants in the air. With them getting on the end of a throw-in it’s something we should work on and take advantage of against opponents. It is something we will work on in this camp and probably continuously going into competition.
"Hopefully, depending on who is on that plane… it might be a story but we’ll see.
"It's nice to be on the pitch every weekend and flying fit. I’m thankful for that. I’m still working hard to maintain it but all is going good. I’m enjoying my football at the minute."
Another motivating factor for Campbell is the opportunity to meet up with her sister Jamiee, who has been in Oz for almost a decade.
"My sister has lived over there, in Adelaide for nearly 10 years and I haven't seen her in about seven or eight, so she is going to go and support the national team," she revealed.
"She's already asking for things to be sent over for Paddy’s Day in Ireland, so she can go and support them. Yeah, she is looking forward to it. She says there is a good bit of hype around the country, and around each city and state, but they are all buzzing.
"The amount of Irish that are over in Australia, it is nearly 50-50 at this rate. So they are all buzzing for it."
Campbell was part of the Liverpool side who travelled to face Chelsea at Kingsmeadow last month only for the game to abandoned after seven minutes as players skidded all over the frozen turf. A subsequent clip of the match 'highlights' - consisting of players sliding all over the icy turf - went viral with many questioning just how the fixture went ahead.
Campbell was one of the dissenting voices; her frustration even more understandable given her injury history.
"It was a tough one because obviously you want your games to be played and we had travelled all the way down there, so we wanted it to go ahead if possible," she reflected.
"Unfortunately, the pitch wasn't playable. It probably shouldn’t have got to the stage that it did where we began the game. But ultimately it has been spoke about now and I think it was almost a good thing that [the highlights clip] was publicised because at the end of the day everyone has seen it for what it was, and it made it a conversation that we had to have.
"People began talking about it and we know it can’t be like that, it needs to be better. One hundred per cent it needs to be better."
"Ultimately, some people will be disappointed and some will be happy, overjoyed."
When asked about how safe the environment was for the players, she added: "Yeah of course it's dangerous to the players, it’s dangerous for the fans as well.
"They had to travel in bad conditions to come and watch us play. Our fans had left at five in the morning on a bus from the club all the way down. They took time out of their weekend to come and support us and at their own risk as well with the travel and the way the weather conditions were.
"It wasn’t good for us, someone could have got injured but thankfully nobody did, and the game was stopped. I think for everyone as a whole it was a bad day."
Right now though there are only good days ahead. Things are going well at Liverpool and really well with Ireland. There's a lot to be positive about, but Campbell - stung so many times by bad luck - is staying grounded.
"To be honest with you I’m trying not to think about it. It sounds silly, but week by week, month by month, I’m trying to just stay focused on my own performances, my own work and fingers crossed come the eighth of July when the plane is leaving for Australia, I’m possibly on it.
"There’s many girls here that can take those squad places. The decision is not ours.
"Ultimately, some people will be disappointed and some will be happy, overjoyed. That is football but until that point, we all have to keep our heads down and work hard because you never know what could happen."
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
