Paul Fennessy

GEORGIE KELLY knows better than most what it takes to thrive in the League of Ireland.

Last season’s Premier Division top scorer and the 2021 PFAI Player of the Year recently completed a move across the water to League One side Rotherham on the back of an exceptional domestic campaign.

Before he did so, however, Kelly reserved high praise for one player in particular.

Speaking to reporters in the build-up to last season’s FAI Cup final, he said: “Promise [Omochere] is an unbelievable player, unbelievable ability, he could easily be the best player in the league.”

Kelly may be slightly biased when it comes to assessing someone who was his teammate at the time, but the conviction with which he spoke left no doubt as to the sincerity of his claim.

With such praise, of course, comes expectation, and Omochere says League of Ireland fans have not seen the best of him yet.

Born in Dublin to Nigerian parents, the 21-year-old’s senior Bohs debut arrived as far back as 2018 in a League Cup tie against Dundalk, having previously spent time at both UCD and an especially talented St Joseph’s Boys side, where his teammates included Andy Lyons, Jonathan Afolabi, Joe Redmond and Brandon Kavanagh.

Yet after an encouraging start to life at the club, serious injury problems began to undermine his progress.

“It just held me back a lot,” he tells The42. “I obviously haven’t had as much development. I think this season was my first full pre-season injury-free since I first came to Bohs. It’s been difficult coping with all the injuries and obviously not being able to develop as much as I’d want to. Not being able to get onto the pitch, having to do a few surgeries. God willing all these injuries are behind me now so I can just focus on helping the team.”

Another big challenge was adapting to his own development. For much of his underage career, Omochere was seen as a skilful winger. However, a recent growth spurt forced him to adapt his game, while he is increasingly being used in more central areas of the attack.

“I prefer playing up front,” he says. “I have played on the wing nearly all my career. Coming up from U19s and schoolboys, I was mainly a winger. But I just shot up in size. I think I’ve grown from 5’7 to about 6’2 [in a short space of time]. Going forward, I see myself as more of a striker. I’m still kind of learning because I haven’t had a lot of experience.

“I have had a lot of injuries, I’ve been kind of a late developer throughout my career. So I’m just focused on getting into the team and helping them as much as I can.”

On the differing demands brought about by this change in physical stature, he adds: “While being a smaller player, you play differently, you avoid contact as much as you would [embrace it] when you’re a bigger lad.

“At the start, there was difficulty in adjusting and changing the game. I was a smaller, more technical player that weaved in and out through opponents, but now it is different and a position change [is tricky] as well.

“I found it hard at the start but I’m finding it alright now and it’s not a problem for me anymore.”

A challenging season lies ahead for Omochere and his teammates.

Georgie Kelly, Ross Tierney, Rob Cornwall, Andy Lyons and Keith Buckley have been among the important players to depart Bohs in the off-season. There are plenty of new faces too — including Ryan Cassidy, Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe, Jordan Doherty, Jordan Flores and Kris Twardek — some of whom will be more familiar to League of Ireland fans than others.

“Overall, our squad is good,” he says. “Obviously, it’s a big miss with Georgie and Rossie not being there, and Bucko, our captain last season, it’s going to be hard to replace players like that. But that’s just the nature of sport. You have to keep going.”

Kelly in particular will be a loss not just on the field but off it, having served as a role model to Omochere and others.

“Especially playing on the wing for Bohs most of my career but then transitioning to a striker, I had to obviously learn from him around the training ground, while he was on the pitch, seeing the different movements he was doing. Pulling off defenders, this and that, and he used to pull me over, talk me through stuff here and there or if he saw stuff I did in training, or after a game, he’d say ‘you probably should have done that or this’. So he was a great help.”

Emulating Kelly and securing a move abroad remains a long-term ambition for Omochere. However, the youngster recognises he still has a long way to go and must first establish himself as a top player at Bohs, as he balances football with a degree in Business and Law at Maynooth University, where he is currently in the middle of his second year of three (or potentially four if he takes up the option to do one extra).

For now, though, Omochere is simply grateful to be preparing for another League of Ireland season, given his past issues.

“[Having] a few injuries that kept me out for probably more than half the time I was at Bohs, up until last year, was very difficult. Keith [Long] had a lot of faith in me, I’m thankful to Keith for believing in me and sticking with me through that. He was always telling me to keep going, all my friends and teammates were a great help as well. The lads around the club, the physio at the club [Dr Paul Kirwan] that was with me since I’ve been injured, he’s been a great help. He’s probably one of the main factors why I’m still playing as well because he was able to bring me back on numerous occasions and keep me motivated.

“When you’re on the hospital bed after surgery and you’re just after being told you’ll probably miss six months with injury, there are a lot of things going through your head. Will you be able to play again? Will you come back as good as you were before? How are you going to get through the six months without playing? But you just have to remember that you will come out the other side stronger and that it won’t be the end. You just have to keep going and know that better days are coming.”