Aoife Mannion on a mission after cruel run of injury luck

The heart-sinking confirmation on Thursday that Jamie Finn had suffered an ACL in training will have resonated deeply within the Republic of Ireland squad.

When it comes to serious injuries, there's plenty of war stories to go around.

Jess Ziu [ACL] is only recently back in action after a year out; Megan Campbell [ankle, ACL] has endured dreadful injury luck in the last five years; while Leanne Kiernan [ankle] missed out on the World Cup because she couldn't quite prove her fitness was up to speed after being sidelined for most of the season.

And then there's Aoife Mannion. The Manchester United defender was a revelation when she came into the fold a year ago, impressing so much on her debut against China that her place in Vera Pauw's squad for the World Cup immediately looked nailed on.

An untimely medial ligament knee injury robbed her of that opportunity, a particularly cruel setback considering she's also twice ruptured her ACL.

Then, a few days into pre-season with United, she tore her quad.

It's taken six months but Mannion is finally back, lifted by her inclusion in Eileen Gleeson's latest squad and eyeing some well-earned on-field joy.

"Injuries and football are really, really difficult and most players unfortunately at some point in their career will experience that," Mannion said ahead of this evening's friendly against Italy in Florence.

"It's really difficult, but everyone is going through something like that in their career. Unfortunately for me, there's been a few in quite recent succession and this camp for me is about looking forward now and trying to appreciate things, take each day as it comes and get my head down and work.

"My main focus for these two games is putting down building blocks towards the qualifiers