Gorman delighted to be back playing with the Waves

After spending the entire second half of the 2014-15 Women’s National League in the stands due to injury, Dora Gorman made a winning return to the UCD Waves side in a pre-season friendly against the American College Juniata College on Tuesday evening at the Belfield Bowl. After the game the Irish international spoke to Extratime.ie about her return to football.

“Yeah, happy out.” she said after playing the full 90 minutes. “It’s my first game with UCD since the Cup final [last November], so I’m happy to be back playing. It’s been tough, but I got a good rehab and pre-season done.”

Despite missing some crucial games for the Waves, the midfielder did have some consolation when she was selected to represent Ireland for a second time at the World University games in South Korea.

“It's an unbelievable experience, just the whole competition, It was really a great experience. I’m so lucky to have gone twice, I was in Kazan in Russia two years ago as well.”

When speaking about recovery from injury, the Galway native revealed she had hoped to return to the Waves before the end of last season, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible so Gorman focused on ensuring she was fully fit for the University games instead.

“I was working towards the games, using it at a pre-season, I was just easing my way back into it as well. I was hoping to get back [playing for the Waves] before the end of the season, but it just didn’t work out.”

Despite missing a large period of football, the Waves star explained she wasn’t keen on taking a long break between the conclusion of the World University games and returning to training with her Waves teammates.

“I didn’t have too much of a break, it was kind of a week down time - then it was straight back into it [Waves training] preparing for the season ahead.”

Before the start of the 2014-15 season, UCD and DLR Waves merged to become the UCD Waves and Gorman is aware that the previous season had come a bit too soon for the Waves, but for the season ahead they intend on setting their stall from week one.

“Yeah, definitely” she replied when asked if they aim to ensure they push on from their first season. ”The last season just came a bit soon for us, we were just coming together and then the season started it took us a while to get into our stride, but hopefully we’ll hit the ground running this time and really put our mark down from the start.”

Despite the Waves only coming together twelve months ago, Gorman is impressed with the mix of youth and experience that manager Eileen Gleeson has assembled and she is hoping they can find a high level of consistency as they challenge for a first Women’s National League title.

“We’ve a few who were over with the under 17’s in the summer [at the European Championships in Iceland]. It’s great to have the young girls coming up, we have a great mix with a good bit of experience and youth so hopefully we can push on and ensure a high level of consistency this season.”