Katie McCabe can still remember the moment.
A phone call from then-manager Colin Bell while she was on holiday.
“I thought I was in trouble,” she said on Monday night.
Why else would the senior boss be calling outside of an international window?
Bell quickly put her at ease.
“That’s what I said to him, ‘Am I in trouble?’ and he was ‘No, no, no’,” McCabe recalled.
Instead, at the age of 21, she was being asked to become the youngest player ever to captain Ireland at senior international level.
It’s just over five years since that call and McCabe, who turned 27 late last month, is potentially 90 minutes from captaining Ireland to the World Cup finals.
It could be her Mick McCarthy moment. He was four years older - 31 - when he skippered Ireland to Italia ‘90.
“I remember the phone call from Colin at the time… We weren’t meeting up at the time, why was Colin Bell ringing me?” McCabe recalled.
“I was actually on holiday at the time because it was in the off-season.
“So obviously he asked me, with Emma Byrne’s retirement and that. I didn’t believe it, but yeah obviously I’m still here now.
“You can’t get rid of me just yet!
“But five years since I was asked to be captain, I wouldn’t have pictured us being in this position.
“But I’ve learnt a lot about myself with the captaincy.”
What exactly has she learned about herself?
“This is getting deep isn’t it? I need to go training,” replied the Tallaght ace with a smile.
“No look, with getting the captaincy at such a young age, what’s the word…the identity, it can overwhelm you, you can try and be someone you’re not and it can change you very quickly.
“At the start, I was thinking ‘What would Emma Byrne do in this situation?’
“But it wasn’t about that, it was about me and I was given the captaincy because of how I was as a person, how I was as a player, what Colin saw in me at the time, as a leader.
“It was about being myself and leading in my own way, it wasn’t what anyone else would do.
“I’ve grown with that, I think, it’s been a pleasure to do that.
“And having those senior girls around me at the time to pick me up in difficult moments if I was maybe not doing the right thing, was really important, and still is to this day.”
She continued: “You look at the great captains that I had in teams, you look like Robbie Keane, really important captains and leaders and it is, ‘What did they do?’.
“But it’s not about that. Yeah you can pick bits and pieces, but it’s about you, obviously being yourself.”
McCabe is still grateful for the support she received - and still receives - from players with more caps and more birthdays than her.
“I wouldn’t have been able to kind of be where I am without the support network I have around me within the team, those senior players to lean on in difficult moments,” she said.
“Yeah, you learn a lot, it was learning on the job, but I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of a core group of players within the team right now.
“I’m obviously thankful to have them beside me.”
Ireland boss Vera Pauw admitted that she might have looked to one of the older members of the squad at the time.
But in the same breath, she acknowledged the unique characteristics that made a young McCabe perfect for the role.
“The thing is you get an extra pressure in the frame of your career. You want to be free to make mistakes and hide yourself at times,” said Pauw.
“Katie has the personality that she doesn’t want to hide, she is capable of carrying that on her shoulders from a very young age, but there are not many like Katie.”
Just like Bell had faith in McCabe, the Ireland captain has full belief in her teammates that they can make history tonight in Hampden Park.
“For me, we have an identity in how we play. We have a structure and a style that we believe in and that we give 100 percent with,” she said.
“I think for us, yeah, it might not be the prettiest at times but we understand our jobs and our roles within what that organisation is.
“And I think having that identity really gives us the confidence to go out and back ourselves in these situations.
“Yeah, we’ve done it in previous games but that doesn’t mean anything any more. We have to do it again (tonight).”
Does she feel the weight of a nation, a burden of expectation, a longing from an Irish public desperate for something to cheer about?
“There’s not a weight on my shoulders,” McCabe replied. “I feel the support and the love and the backing from the nation.”
She added: “For us it’s about, obviously going to that first major tournament in our history and what it would do for football in Ireland would be massive,” she said.
“We want to achieve that goal but we want to also inspire young girls in Ireland, making sure they can dream and hopefully play for Ireland too.
“I’ve got my little sister (Lauryn) who is representing the Under-16s at the minute.
“We want to put ourselves in that limelight to show that they can achieve and play professional football, and make major tournaments.
“Obviously the focus will be on winning the game but if we win it, the knock-on effect of that would be massive.”
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