{"id":387648,"date":"2026-04-08T06:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/387648\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:40:14","slug":"bump-in-the-road-for-brennan-but-huge-future-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/387648\/","title":{"rendered":"Bump in the road for Brennan but &#8216;huge future&#8217; ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This coming fortnight was shaping up to be a momentous one for Bohemians midfielder Aoibhe Brennan.<\/p>\n<p>Last Monday, the 18-year-old had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/0330\/1565876-bohs-teen-brennan-in-irish-squad-for-poland-double-header\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">earned her maiden call-up to the Republic of Ireland squad<\/a> for the upcoming World Cup qualifying double-header against Poland.<\/p>\n<p>She would have been coming into the camp with Girls in Green manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/0330\/1565877-ward-critical-for-fans-to-pack-out-poland-game-at-aviva\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Carla Ward&#8217;s lavish praise ringing in her ears<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And on top of that, the Meath native was the only player based in the SSE Airtricity Women&#8217;s Premier Division to attain a call-up.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, injury has now thrown a spanner in the works and Brennan won&#8217;t be linking up with the Irish senior squad for the trip to Gdansk next Tuesday and the subsequent home game with the Poles at Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Bohs have confirmed that an ankle injury has put paid to her hopes in the short-term and Brennan is among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/0407\/1567042-reynolds-gets-ireland-call-as-trio-forced-to-pull-out\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a trio of players who have had to withdraw from the original 24-player selection<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s only a small bump in the road in the grand scheme of things, according to Shelbourne midfielder Rachel Graham, who sees a very bright future ahead for the deep-lying midfielder.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s someone with huge potential. For her to get a call-up, it&#8217;s so exciting, so brilliant and I think Carla&#8217;s definitely right in pinpointing her as someone who&#8217;s there for the future and I do think she&#8217;s right as well in terms of she&#8217;s someone who still has to grow and develop a lot,&#8221; she told the RT\u00c9 Soccer Podcast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"youtube-container tpe\" data-embed=\"youtube\" data-id=\"g0uhLT_2ZVk\">\n<p>Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/ie\/podcast\/rt%C3%A9-soccer-podcast\/id1351258823\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/6pcqDQ1AO2djjP7xBSewtl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spotify<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/radio1\/podcast\/podcast_soccerrepublic.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I do think she is going to go professional so it&#8217;s just about getting that next step up. I&#8217;d say she&#8217;s still quite a small, petite kind of player so for her to go and build herself up, (she can) look at Denise (O&#8217;Sullivan), who is probably a similar build and (see) what does she do in the gym and what does she do to prep for a game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Definitely she&#8217;s somebody with a huge future ahead of her.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Graham, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/0404\/1566766-all-island-cup-wrap-sligo-defeat-holders-wexford\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">scored directly from a corner for Shels in their All-Island Cup clash against Waterford <\/a>on Saturday, is particularly impressed by a maturity to Brennan&#8217;s game that belies her age.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She has both sides of her game, Aoibhe Brennan. She can attack, she&#8217;s really creative, clever on the ball, and as Carla said, does the simple things well,&#8221; said the four-time Ireland cap.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People often forget it&#8217;s not easy to do the simple things well sometimes, but that&#8217;s probably 90% of her game and she has to be able to do it well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s really mature in that sense where she doesn&#8217;t try anything weird or wonderful. It&#8217;s the basics, just get them right and then she does have a bit of flair where she can create a goal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Along with Jessie Stapleton, midfielder Lily Agg is the other player forced to pull out of the squad and in her case it is a particularly bitter blow.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old had only just returned from a 15-month absence following an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury to win back her place in the squad.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the Durham player now faces another lengthy lay-off after rupturing her Achilles heel.<\/p>\n<p>Agg <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/0404\/1566735-aggs-heart-is-broken-after-cruel-injury-setback\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">opened up about her sense of anguish in a social media post at the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lily Agg of Republic of Ireland during the UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Play-off Round Two first leg match between Wales and Republic of Ireland at Cardiff City Stadium in Wales\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/00242ac2-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nLily Agg faces another injury recovery battle, having just fought back from an ACL<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Two of the worst injuries you can have,&#8221; Agg wrote. &#8220;I keep asking myself what I ever did to deserve this? Why me? Why now?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People close to me keep saying I&#8217;ll come back stronger again. If I\u2019m being honest, right now I genuinely don\u2019t know if I will come back at all.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019ll be another year older. I\u2019m 32 now, out of contract in June, with an ACL and an achilles rupture behind me in the last two years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m not naive. The game is changing, and I know I\u2019ll be a risk many won\u2019t want to take a chance on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My heart is broken and my head hurts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Agg&#8217;s Ireland team-mates have rallied around her on social media and Graham said that support would be important as the 2023 World Cup squad member faces into an uncertain future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My heart really goes out to her having to go through that,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If you talk to any player who has gone through an ACL, they say it&#8217;s one of the toughest things you can ever go through.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So to come through it and then to get another long-term injury is obviously really tough for her.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She probably doesn&#8217;t have age on her side either. She&#8217;s 32 now and will be 33 when she comes back from this injury and it&#8217;s probably hard to get a professional contract at 33 with those two bad injuries behind you.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hopefully that&#8217;s not the case. But I&#8217;m sure for her it&#8217;s a real down in the dumps time for her. But my heart did go out to her.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Watch PSG v Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday from 7.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app<\/p>\n<p alt=\"Post-Prague prognosis, McClean punches back and squad to face Poland\" class=\"tpe\" data-description=\"Graham Gartland and Conan Byrne reflect on Ireland's post-Prague lay of the land, an Easter weekend of LOI action and PSG v Liverpool, while Rachel Graham discusses the Girls in Green squad for next week's Poland double-header.\" data-embed=\"rte-player\" data-id=\"22599356\" data-ot-category=\"C0004\" data-title=\"Graham Gartland and Conan Byrne reflect on Ireland's post-Prague lay of the land, an Easter weekend of LOI action and PSG v Liverpool, while Rachel Graham discusses the Girls in Green squad for next week's Poland double-header.\">We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.<a class=\"blocked-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/0407\/1567068-bump-in-the-road-for-brennan-but-huge-future-ahead\/javascript:void(0);\" onclick=\"OneTrust.ToggleInfoDisplay()\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manage Preferences<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This coming fortnight was shaping up to be a momentous one for Bohemians midfielder Aoibhe Brennan. Last Monday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-387648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}