Izzy Atkinson didn’t book a holiday this summer. Just in case.
Even when Vera Pauw excluded her from the original training camp squad, the West Ham youngster held fire.
Now Atkinson has a trip of a lifetime in Australia to look forward to and she reckons that’s down to the unusual set of circumstances that led to her inclusion.
“I was very gutted not to be in the initial squad,” said Atkinson, who didn’t play a single minute in qualification.
Only the two back-up goalkeepers and the recently recruited Sinead Farrelly and Marissa Sheva are in the same boat regarding a lack of game-time en-route to Australia.
So, when Pauw drafted her into the training camp, a place in the final-23 still seemed unlikely for the 21-year-old.
As she explained, when the phone call came from the Ireland manager, Atkinson was called in “as a training player.”
It turns out that it was the best thing that could have happened to her.
“For any person or any player who has that opportunity, I went into it with no fear. I had nothing to lose,” recalled the Rush native.
“And it must have really suited me, because I performed really well in training. I thought I did as much as I could.”
Atkinson did enough in that short space of time to earn a start against Zambia - and in her fifth senior international, she stood out as one of Ireland’s brightest players.
“When I got the opportunity in the game, I thought I did really well,” said the former Shelbourne and Celtic star.
“Maybe it suits me, having no fear, that nothing to lose attitude, and I was very proud of how I dealt with it because there was quite a lot of pressure.
“I was very nervous (in the dressing room beforehand), definitely, but my attitude was that I have nothing to lose.
“This was potentially the biggest game of my career and I knew I had to give everything.”
Would she have performed as well if she had made the original squad?
“When you are in the squad, there is an expectation, but when you are not in the squad, there is not any,” mused Atkinson.
“I just reacted very well to it and just very proud to be here with all the girls.”
So what was it that turned Atkinson into Ireland’s World Cup bolter? Pauw spoke, on the day that she named the squad, about how “the penny had to drop” with the youngster, tactically.
She hailed the “maturity” and “insight” in the youngster’s 45-minute display against Zambia and during the weeks of training at Belfield.
Atkinson recalled the many conversations she had on the training pitch with Pauw down through the years.
“I have been in and around the squad since I was 16 and since Vera came in there have been a lot of things that she has said that I am beginning to grasp,” she said.
“When I got the opportunity (against Zambia), I was aware of everything she said over the past few years.
“There are so many times in training when she would tell me something when I was a lot younger and I wouldn’t listen maybe, or it would look like I was not listening.
“But especially being with West Ham and being in that environment, it has definitely made me grow as a person and a player.
“And when you come in here, it makes you want to fight for it more and want it more, and I am just glad I got the opportunity.”
She described the moment that she heard she was going to Australia as “the best feeling in the world,” and added: “I kept the summer free just in case. No holidays planned!”
Atkinson continued: “My Dad had an awful time all morning (of the squad selection). My Mam and sisters were saying he couldn’t relax. He had to go down in the car, he couldn’t settle.
“I rang him and told him. He was in the car and on the way to collect me and he had to pull over. He said, ‘I feel like I am going to have a heart attack’.
“He said it was the best day of his life.
“My Mam was on Facetime at home, I told her and she just ran outside the house, screaming.
“I have a big family, seven siblings. They were all… the neighbours and everyone were texting and saying, ‘I guess it is good news’.
“It was honestly the best day of my life but there are even better days coming.”
Messages of congratulations have been coming thick and fast.
“I can’t even believe how many people got in touch with me about this,” said the former Rush Athletic and Enniskerry prospect.
“When I signed for West Ham and Celtic, I never got this support. I got a lot of support, but this has been different.
“A lot of people who have had an impact on me - my primary school had a football team, my first coach, all the boys when I was younger, every single coach I’ve had over my career - have texted me.
“It’s so special, because they’ve had a part in it. I’m grateful to each and every one of them, they’ve all played a part in me getting picked.”
