WHILE IRELAND WERE at the World Cup in Australia last summer, Leanne Kiernan was home in Cavan plotting and planning a very different “project”.
The Liverpool striker had missed out on the final squad amidst a complex return from a horror ankle injury, but was keeping busy on the family farm.
Her father, John, is a pig farmer, but Leanne has three beef cows of her own.
One of them is now pregnant, with a shorthorn calf due in July. The bull was handpicked 12 months previous on one of many quad trips around the farm with her brother, Gary.
“She’s about to calve next month,” Kiernan says, taking out her phone to show a photograph.
“We’re not cattle farmers at home but I always had an interest. I remember for my First Communion money, I went and spent money on cows instead of make-up or jewellery!”
Years later, when her World Cup dream was put on hold, the farm was a welcome focus. Her attitude to it all is admirable.
“I’m very much like, what’s for me won’t pass me. I wasn’t supposed to go to that World Cup, and I’m okay with that. I had a really nice summer. Of course, I was cheering on the girls, but every summer I come home, I turn off my football group chats and I just reset.
“I live with girls from football. We go for coffee, we talk about football. You have 10 months of the year that it’s only football. I go home, I’m with my cows. I just like being out in nature with animals, just away from it all, but of course, it was great to see the girls on the big stage.
“I know that my time will come. That wasn’t for me and I think it was a blessing in disguise. I wasn’t ready, and I’ll be ready for the next one for sure.”
Kiernan is in flying form on the first official day of Ireland camp ahead of their Euro 2025 qualifier double-header against Sweden.
The 25-year-old finished her club season with a half-hour hat-trick off the bench against Leicester City, bringing her tally to five goals in 14 WSL appearances as she found her way back to full fitness.
Her 2022/23 season effectively ended on opening day after a significant ankle injury sustained against Chelsea required surgery.
A hellish spell followed, though she did eventually string some minutes together and make the provisional squad for the World Cup.
But her bid for a seat on the plane fell agonisingly short and further setbacks meant the 2023/24 season was a slow burn.
“People think when you are injured that you are tipping around in the gym. Those 15 months when I was injured was the hardest that I’ve ever been tested in my life, sport-wise.
“You don’t realise how grateful you are that you can wake up and go training and go play and be a part of something. When that is taken away from you, you get a bit of a hop. You think, I’m over here to do this and I can’t do it. What’s my purpose right now?”
“I got to learn a lot about our tactics and the way we play,” she continues. “I was sitting up higher in the stadium and I got to see different runs and why players make those runs. I worked a lot with the analysis guy, we’d go through clips and see what I could improve on. I did a lot of off-the-ball stuff that maybe people didn’t see.
“I probably needed it. I needed my own time. I feel like I have matured a lot from that. Not that I took things for granted, but I feel like I am a lot more grateful for everything in life. I was home more often and I got to see my family a lot more. My Mam came over for three weeks at a time and that was the longest I got with her since I was a kid.
“It was a blessing in disguise. I was always, maybe, like ‘Why me? Why is this happening?’ I felt like I had a good season the year before and I was starting to get back on my feet, but I really do look back now and I think everything was meant to happen like this, so it was good.”
At times, the rehab felt endless. It still does. Tiny, tiny steps.
And big ones, too. She had to learn how to run again; how to step and drop her foot to the ground. Movements that had been second nature all her life.
There were countless appointments with physios and specialists, each of whom she is grateful for.
Everything came together — and Kiernan now has to keep it that way, and stay on top of it.
She has metal and wires in her ankle and 18 months on from surgery, 30-45 minutes of rehab every day is necessary to avoid flare-ups in her tendons. She undergoes shockwave treatment every week, has had two cortisone injections due to impingements, and it’s a case of constant management. “I feel I’m back to myself and my confidence is coming back.”
From her first 90 minutes against Everton when she was “absolutely two-footed” by Ireland team-mate and friend Courtney Brosnan, to ending the wait for her first goal back against her former club, West Ham; it has been a whirlwind.
The second was in a thrilling win over eventual champions Chelsea, Kiernan playing through an illness having been bed-bound with a flu.
And then there was that final day hat-trick against Leicester, as Matt Beard’s side finished fourth.
“Just enjoy it, do your thing,” John told her after flying over that morning, with extra individual attacking work post-training also fresh in her mind.
“‘Bring back the old Leanne,’ my Dad is constantly saying. ‘Sometimes you’re not trusting yourself when you’re running at defenders since you’ve came back.’
“I was like, ‘You’re right, I am fast, I can beat a defender. That was my old style of play, to run at defenders and bring back my confidence.’ I tried to really focus on that: when I got on the ball, I was thinking there’s only one place I want to go now.”
Her contract is up this summer, but it sounds like Kiernan will be extending her stay on Merseyside. “Nothing’s done yet, but I kind of see where my future is, so we shall see,” she says.
International duty takes precedence for now. Eileen Gleeson has put her trust in Kiernan since her return. She has featured in every game in 2024 thus far, proving a lively option off the bench.
“I feel like I’m fully back to what I can produce. Ireland’s been great. I really like Eilo and it’s been a really nice environment to be back in.
“I feel very comfortable in here and I quite enjoy it. I like being back with the girls and all the staff is excellent. I feel like they’re very detailed about how we’re going to play and everything, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot from being in here. It’s been a really nice environment and I feel at ease coming in.”
There was one high-profile moment in the opening 1-0 qualifier defeat to France, which drew a lot of commentary on social media.
An unmarked Katie McCabe wanted the ball in the box late on, but Kiernan opted to deliver to the back post — not shoot, she insists — from the right and it went awry.
“I didn’t see her, I didn’t look up, I guess that’s maybe the lack of game involvement. I’ll learn from it, we go again.”
And what about when the roles were reversed in the England game at the Aviva Stadium?
“We won’t talk about that!
“Listen, it’s football. People make mistakes, that’s why it’s such a good game. And then you have a second of glory, and it’s brilliant. We learn, we go again. It’s probably the lack of playing together too.
“I quite like negative comments too because I’m just like, ‘You have no idea what we’re doing to get to this stage.’ There’s always going to be one or two people that’s going to bring you down if you let them. I’m like, ‘Go on, say what you want, you have no idea.’”
