Such is Jess Ziu's infectious attitude towards football, at first glance when speaking to her, one wouldn't realise that the Republic of Ireland international has had to endure more than one serious injury setback.
The 22-year-old missed out on being involved in the 2023 FIFA World Cup in Australia due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained the previous year.
The West Ham midfielder battled back from that and earned her spot back in the Ireland team, featuring in the famous 3-1 win over France at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last July.
But not long after that, Ziu sustained an ACL injury for the second time in her young career and the last few months have been focused on recovery.
However, the former Shelbourne player can see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially with the invaluable help of the staff and facilities at West Ham.
Speaking in-depth to the RTÉ Soccer Podcast this week about her career to date, Ziu feels the work she's putting in means it won't be a long wait before Girls in Green supporters and Hammers fans will see her back on the pitch.
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
"Firstly, the goal was to reach the Euros but obviously that's not going to happen anymore so we haven't taken a step back but we've kind of relaxed it a bit more," said the Dubliner as she reunited on the podcast with Shelbourne's Rachel Graham who was very much a mentor to her whilst breaking through at Tolka Park.
"I'm now almost seven and a half months post-op, I'm running, I'm kicking the ball, doing change of direction, I'm back in team warm-ups, so I'm pretty much 75% of the way there.
"I'm getting back. I'm hoping with the (Women's Super League) season ending in a week, the timing's not great in terms of getting back into contact and team training, but I will be back and ready to go in pre-season and getting my game-time.
"If I had to choose, it falls well because I'd go into pre-season, I can build up my minutes in pre-season and go from there."
Having had the past experience of suffering an ACL injury, Ziu - who also went into detail on her pathway from youth football in Finglas to making it to the top at club and international level - knew what was facing her straight away after it happened a second time but went into the rehab process with an upbeat attitude.
"It wasn't as sore as my first one now. The first one was a lot more sore. I had meniscus damage the first one, I had broken knee bones, everything, so my second one wasn't as bad," she said.
"I walked off (the pitch), I was barely using my crutches and straight away I got on top of it. I ordered ankle weights to get my knee straight, I was on the Game Ready (a cold compression therapy device) straight away, I had girls around me at West Ham before they flew to Australia (for pre-season) bringing me ice and food and snacks and I was in really good care when it happened again."
Watch the Champions League semi-final, Barcelona v Inter Milan, on Wednesday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
