Denise O'Sullivan has enjoyed several successful years plying her trade with North Carolina Courage, however, the midfielder admits that she is eyeing a move to England at some point in her career.
The Ireland stalwart moved Stateside in 2016 following a three-season stint with Glasgow City, arriving at The Courage following a brief stint at Houston Dash.
Back-to-back National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) titles in 2018 and 2019, O’Sullivan has continued to impress in the USA and is currently the club captain with The Courage.
Over 125 caps for Ireland ahead of this week’s Nations League promotion/relegation play-off with Belgium, O’Sullivan stressed that she remains content back across the Atlantic, while hinting that a move to English football might be appearing on the horizon.
"I think it's always in the back of my mind," said O’Sullivan, speaking to RTE Sport ahead of the Belgium encounter.
"I've been with the Courage now seven plus years. I'm the captain now, but I am happy there. I think the professionalism of the club is amazing.
"I think the standards are really, really high, so I get the most of myself there, but yeah, I think going to England has always been in the back of my mind and I think it still is in the back of my mind for sure."
O’Sullivan was a serious doubt ahead of the Belgium double-header and has been in a race to return to full fitness to make the squad for the vital games, and she has made a remarkable recovery, getting back to play some club football before linking back up with the national side in Dublin.
"I got injured about two months ago and the minute I got injured, I was just thinking about the national team and how I'm going to make it back for that camp and that was my goal the minute I got injured," she explained.
"I feel fantastic now. I'm really happy to be in with the squad and really excited for the games.
"It was tough, yeah. I had a few MCL injuries this year, just little niggles and this one was a bit more serious, so it set me back a good bit.
"It was definitely mentally tough. When I first got injured, they told me 12 to 16 weeks and my answer was it's not going to take that long and yeah, it's been eight weeks now, so I got back a good few weeks early, so I'm very happy."
Ireland play Belgium at Aviva Stadium on Friday night followed by the return leg next Tuesday, and O’Sullivan is expecting a tough test against a side ranked seven places ahead of Ireland, who are 27th in the world rankings.
"They’re a very good team, a very strong team," said O’Sullivan. "I think they have a lot of strengths and I think their biggest one is probably on the transition. I think they're very good, very quick.
"And they have some individual class in the team, but for us, I think we have to focus on ourselves this week and see what we can bring to them.
"We do know they're a very strong team and for us going out Friday, we have to be at our best to be able to beat this team. That's the mentality going into the game, that we have to do everything possible on the pitch to be able to get three points."
O’Sullivan again spoke about her support for Colin Healy following his departure from the Ireland coaching set-up, while emphasising the continued work she is undertaking to ensure that women’s football continues to evolve from the grassroots up.
"I was frustrated, yeah. I think everyone's seen that I voice my opinion and I think for me I'm a very principled person and I think when something's not right I speak on it," she said, when asked about Healy.
"I think I am quiet, so when I speak on it then it becomes a thing, but I was frustrated and Colin was a very respected member of staff within the team and one of the best coaches I've ever worked with and so it was definitely hard to lose him from the team and yeah, I was frustrated for sure.
"I think we've come a long way with this team and I think that comes from a lot of the players that came before us, the Emma Byrnes, the Áine O'Gormans," she added, when asked about former manager Eileen Gleeson filing a case in the circuit court, accusing the FAI of treating her and her team unfairly because of their gender, and whether she felt like she was treated unfairly.
"I think they pushed a lot for this team but I think now as a leader of this team, as someone who's been in this team for 10 plus years, I think there's always things we can push on and there's always standards that need to be better so I think for us we won't stand still and we'll try and keep pushing those standards and at this stage it's not about me, it's about the next generation.
"It's about the young girls that are going to come in and wear that jersey so I think for us we need to keep pushing the standards."
Watch the full interview with Denise O’Sullivan on the RTE Sport YouTube channel.
