Linda Djougang has long been an important name in Irish rugby circles, but away from the pitch, she has a very different career.
The pro is currently playing in the Women’s Six Nations and is no stranger to juggling multiple balls, after all, she finished her Master’s just a week before the World Cup in 2025.
Ahead of the France match this weekend, Linda told how it’s important to her to have a career outside of sport that she loves.
Linda Djougang during an Ireland Women’s Rugby squad training session in Dublin. Pic: Sportsfile
Linda said: ‘We [the women’s team] don’t have the privilege that we have with the men to play professional rugby and support also the financial side… So it was really important for me to just really focus.
‘I finished my Master’s just a week before the World Cup. There are so many different aspects of just me as a rugby player; it’s good to even look at the future.
‘We play a sport that is so unpredictable, you don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s also good to keep that education, and I love to be able to do both.
Linda Djougang of Ireland and team-mates after the Women’s Six Nations match between Ireland and Italy. Pic: Sportsfile
‘Everyone has been so supportive, but I know that I’m more than just a player, so it was to keep that education going to just keep striving in sport.’
When not playing for her country, Linda, who studied Sports Management at UCD, works with Medserv, a medical billing company.
She said: ‘We work with private consultants, GPs, and hospitals, so it’s still in healthcare. I feel like the job really marries both my degree and nursing… So it’s really good.’
Linda says everyone in her rugby world and work world has been very supportive of her chasing both dreams, and that she’s found there are lots of transferable skills between the two.
Linda Djougang of Ireland arrives for the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 quarter-final match. Pic: Sportsfile
‘Everyone has been so good in supporting me,’ she said. ‘I’m able to be here, and I don’t have to really worry about work. I played the whole Celtic Challenge, so they were able to support me in that.
‘I think that it is also important that when I went in for the job, they knew that I was an athlete and also coming from being a full-time athlete. They were able to support me in that transition.
‘They’ve been so good, and they understand what I do, they understand my commitment to rugby, they understand what an athlete is.’
Ireland’s Deirbhile Nic a Bháird and Linda Djougang celebrate after the Scotland warm-up game. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady
Linda has also been able to bring her pro athlete training to work. She said: ‘I’m also able to transition that aspect of an athlete and the mindset that we have and bring it to the job.
‘It’s a different transitional skill, but it’s also worked perfectly. Corporate life is so different from professional life, but there’s so much skill that can be transitioned.
‘It’s really good for me to be able to experience that, so even in the future, knowing that it’s not going to be a big shock for me when I finish here to go into the outside world.’