SPARTA’S BEEN LIT UNDER ME
Rovers ace Byrne admits he’s delighted to be back after injury hell and these Euro games excite him
JACK BYRNE dreams of another group stage adventure for Shamrock Rovers as he is eager to make up for lost time.
The Hoops playmaker is available for tonight’s Champions League second leg at Sparta Prague after serving a suspension.
He missed last week’s 2-0 defeat in the home leg following his two yellow cards in the nervy win over Icelandic champions Vikingur the week before.
But Ireland international Byrne (right) is just relieved to be getting a run of games under his belt following an injury nightmare that started in Europe last summer.
He shipped a knee injury against Breidablik a year ago and was never right after it, despite one or two false dawns.
Eventually he had surgery but a calf issue then set him back in pre-season and Byrne has been fighting for consistency in his fitness with just six starts all year.
Now he knows Rovers have the safety net of Europa League and even Conference League and that’s where any group stage run is most likely.
He said: “I had a tough time last year with injuries so I’m just happy to be back. It’s never ideal missing preseason, trying to get up to speed during the season. We’re not in the best of form and it’s been difficult enough.
“It’s good to play in Europe but I don’t just want to play, I want to play well. But I understand that it’s not going to happen overnight.”
While some League of Ireland supporters were bullish of the Irish teams’ prospects this year, Byrne insists that it’s not that easy shifting through the levels in Europe. “People underestimate the quality of other teams and different nations,” said the midfielder.
“I can only speak from my own experience but when I played in Holland in the top division, it wasn’t only the top three teams qualifying for Europe that were good.
“The rest of the sides were. So when you play teams from Gibraltar, Iceland, Norway, these are the top teams in their country.
“They’re going to have international players and will be coached well. With the heat, they are difficult games.”
He added: “We want more competition in Ireland, better players and facilities to push the league. It’s not there at the moment. We know that. We’ve good players, it’s getting better but we obviously need to push it forward.”