Lessons learned after 20 years for Irish goalkeeper - 'You do what is best for your family'

The 42

3 days ago

COLIN DOYLE'S 22-year career as a professional footballer has come to an end, but he is not the one in his house currently getting love and attention while recovering from a cruciate knee ligament injury.
That would be Roo, the family's puggle (a cross between a pug and a beagle), after the poor thing got excited by a visitor to the house and ran into the front door.
'Popped the back right ACL and needed a an operation a couple of weeks ago, but at least it's a shorter rehab,' Doyle says.
'It would be six to nine months for us. It's only three months for a dog.'
Doyle navigated most of the last two decades as a goalkeeper in England and Scotland without serious injury. After leaving Douglas Hall for Birmingham City in the early 2000s there were teething problems that required five operations on the cartilage in both knees.
'It was down to the way I was getting back up and my technique after diving to make a save,' he says.
The issue ruled him out of Giovanni Trapattoni's first training camp as Republic of Ireland manager in 2008, and the nature of his international career sums up life on the margins.
His first cap was earned against Ecuador in 2007, there was an 11-year wait for his second, and such was his desire to make sure the opportunity didn't pass him by he played 90 minutes in that away game against Turkey in 2018 and, 24 hours later, did the same for Bradford City against Gillingham Town in League One.
Doyle played for his country four times in four different countries – America, Turkey, France and Ireland, when his wife and three children were finally able to watch him in Dublin.
That was special for plenty of reasons.
Doyle joined Birmingham as an apprentice after doing his Junior Cert in 2001, and spending time with Leicester City and Aston Villa. The youngest of three brothers, his mother Nuala didn't want him to leave home. 'But she never said to me 'you're not going'. She didn't talk to me about it, just my dad and brothers.'
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Soon after arriving in the English midlands Doyle met Becky. He knew then that it was the start of a new path in life, whatever football would bring.
By the age of 25 they were married and had three children; Harry, Eva and Liam. In the summer of 2010 Doyle was a member of the Birmingham squad in the Premier League but found himself third choice behind Ben Foster and Maik Taylor.
Those professional challenges were nothing compared to the call that re-shaped his priorities while on pre-season in China.
'Not that I ever want to remember that call,' Doyle says.
There had already been complications with Liam's birth and after overcoming pneumonia he then contracted meningococcal meningitis.
Doyle was on the first flight back to England.
'We didn't know if Liam was going to make it,' he says.
Doctors acted swiftly to save Liam's life, although he later developed epilepsy. Appointments with specialists and visits to the hospital would become the norm.
'Too many to count over the years.
'At the start it was really difficult because anytime Liam got ill, even a cold, we were worried what could happen. You would see him having seizures, what his body was going through, it was so hard,' Doyle says.
With Becky's family in Birmingham and that support network so valued, Doyle's focus was ensuring as much stability as possible. Remaining a back-up goalkeeper for 12 years allowed that. 'You do what's best for your family,' he says.
Liam is now 15 and hasn't had a seizure for two years, while hospital appointments have been reduced to once every 12 months. Like his father he is obsessed by golf and, like his father, is a goalkeeper for a local team. 'I won't push football on him. I'm just glad to have someone for a two-ball when I can get one, it's just great to see him do things that make him happy.'
Harry is now 22 and Eva will soon be 17, both have grown up with a deep understanding and sense of duty towards their brother as they begin to forge their own paths in life.
Harry recently moved to London for work and his sister has a similar ethic instilled as she saves for a car.
'She started off wanting an Audi but we've agreed on a Polo,' Doyle says. He laughs as he recalls getting his first car in his early 20s, something that also stirs up memories of career heartache.
'I bought a second-hand Ford Focus for four grand off Neil Harris when I was on loan at Nottingham Forest. It was his wife's car. I remember that cause he was manager of Millwall when they beat us (Bradford) in the League One play-off final [in 2017.)'
Doyle celebrated his 40th birthday last month and, naturally, there has been time for reflection. There were four Premier League appearances with Birmingham before moving to Blackpool and then on to Bradford City, who paid £1 for his signature due to a release clause. As family life settled he played for Hearts and Kilmarnock during a four-year spell in Scotland before – as they say in football – he was released.
'It's getting your P45! I was sacked,' Doyle says, laughing again.
It did not take that landmark birthday to consider his future in the game. He went into this pre-season knowing he would be packing away his gloves, at least as a player.
He will remain on the Bradford staff as first-team goalkeeper coach and their League One campaign kicked off against Plymouth Argyle yesterday. Promotion to English football's third tier was secured with a kind of dizzying drama on the last day of last season, the winning goal in the 96th minute in front of a sold-out home crowd of 25,000 providing a surge of adrenaline that will be hard to replicate.
'I sprinted from the bench onto the centre of the pitch but then had to try and stop myself, I put my hands in my pockets and walked back to the side.'
He will continue to seek that buzz in some form from the only life he has known. 'I think I would like to have a go at being a manager one day for sure,' he says.
Doyle's mind was made up about retiring and nothing has made him waver, the decision bringing a clarity that has always been needed for his family.
This summer has allowed for a form of release from the rituals and demands that shaped his time as a professional footballer.
And there is life in the old dog just yet.