IF RICHARD DUNNE lines out for QPR at home to Nottingham Forest tomorrow afternoon, it will mark his 40th appearance for the club since joining on a free transfer last summer.
It is a remarkable feat for the 34-year-old Irish defender when you consider he missed the entire 2012/2013 season with Aston Villa through injuries which threatened to end his career.
Dunne has been an ever-present at the heart of the Rs defence as they look to make an immediate return to the Premier League. They will have to do it the hard way, however, as Leicester have already sealed promotion while Burnley aren’t far behind.
As just reward for his consistency, it was announced last week that the former Manchester City stalwart had triggered a one-year extension in his QPR contract meaning it will run until the summer of 2015.
And he is understandably delighted having coming through a painfully frustrating period in his life.
“It’s great news,” he told TheScore.ie. “It was put in my contract that I had to play a certain amount of games to earn another year.
Advertisement
“Having not played at all last season it seemed like an awful lot of games at the time but I’ve managed to play 39 now so it has been great.
“I thought I could (return from injury) but until you do it you just don’t know. Every time I tried to come back last year I kept breaking down so it was always a bit of a risk for the club to give me the chance and I’m very grateful for that and glad I’ve been able to do it.”
Dunne can’t speak highly enough of manager Harry Redknapp, who has managed his fitness excellently over the course of a notoriously arduous campaign in the Championship.
He has been great with me. He understood what injuries I had previously and what I was coming off the back of. He knows that I need a rest at times if it means I’ll be available for every game.
“A lot of it is down to the manager letting me recover from the games and putting the right training on.
“It is so often that we play Saturday and Tuesday with no real time for anything so when we have the midweek games it’s just important to rest or sometimes train a bit harder when you know you’re going to have a run of midweek games coming up.”
A bandage-wearing Dunne contests a header against Bournemouth's Ryan Fraser. Clive Gee
Clive Gee
The Rs have picked up just one point from their last three league outings and Dunne has put their recent poor displays down to several injuries to Redknapp’s squad. Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with Forest at Loftus Road, he emphasised the importance of rediscovering their form at a pivotal time in the season.
“We want to just try and confirm our spot as quick as we can,” explains Dunne. “Hopefully we can win on Saturday as that will go some way to doing that.
“As well as just getting into the play-offs, we need to try and get some form going because we haven’t been playing great of late.
“When you go in, there are so many teams on good runs and the momentum might take them ahead of us so we need to make sure that’s not the case.”
Everyone wants to play at the highest level and to get back there (the Premier League) would be great. That was the aim when I signed the contract. It was with the view of playing Premier League football next season.
“We thought we would go up straight away through automatic promotion but over the season the two teams Leicester and Burnley have been brilliant and we’ve not been able to keep up with them.
“If we get into the play-offs we’ll have a second chance and to do it with a big day out at Wembley would be brilliant.”
Republic of Ireland Senior International Richard Dunne exchanged advice with Under 21 player Luke Byrne as the pair teamed up to announce Ford’s exclusive ‘Swappage’ offer, where car owners can receive a Swappage Allowance of up to €1,500 in addition to the trade in value of their old vehicle against a brand new Fiesta, Focus, B-Max or C-Max. The offer runs until June 30th and further details are available at fordswappage.ie or from local Ford Dealers countrywide.
Premier League return on the cards as Dunne reaches 40-game mark for QPR
IF RICHARD DUNNE lines out for QPR at home to Nottingham Forest tomorrow afternoon, it will mark his 40th appearance for the club since joining on a free transfer last summer.
It is a remarkable feat for the 34-year-old Irish defender when you consider he missed the entire 2012/2013 season with Aston Villa through injuries which threatened to end his career.
Dunne has been an ever-present at the heart of the Rs defence as they look to make an immediate return to the Premier League. They will have to do it the hard way, however, as Leicester have already sealed promotion while Burnley aren’t far behind.
As just reward for his consistency, it was announced last week that the former Manchester City stalwart had triggered a one-year extension in his QPR contract meaning it will run until the summer of 2015.
And he is understandably delighted having coming through a painfully frustrating period in his life.
“It’s great news,” he told TheScore.ie. “It was put in my contract that I had to play a certain amount of games to earn another year.
“Having not played at all last season it seemed like an awful lot of games at the time but I’ve managed to play 39 now so it has been great.
“I thought I could (return from injury) but until you do it you just don’t know. Every time I tried to come back last year I kept breaking down so it was always a bit of a risk for the club to give me the chance and I’m very grateful for that and glad I’ve been able to do it.”
Dunne can’t speak highly enough of manager Harry Redknapp, who has managed his fitness excellently over the course of a notoriously arduous campaign in the Championship.
“A lot of it is down to the manager letting me recover from the games and putting the right training on.
“It is so often that we play Saturday and Tuesday with no real time for anything so when we have the midweek games it’s just important to rest or sometimes train a bit harder when you know you’re going to have a run of midweek games coming up.”
The Rs have picked up just one point from their last three league outings and Dunne has put their recent poor displays down to several injuries to Redknapp’s squad. Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with Forest at Loftus Road, he emphasised the importance of rediscovering their form at a pivotal time in the season.
“We want to just try and confirm our spot as quick as we can,” explains Dunne. “Hopefully we can win on Saturday as that will go some way to doing that.
“As well as just getting into the play-offs, we need to try and get some form going because we haven’t been playing great of late.
“When you go in, there are so many teams on good runs and the momentum might take them ahead of us so we need to make sure that’s not the case.”
“We thought we would go up straight away through automatic promotion but over the season the two teams Leicester and Burnley have been brilliant and we’ve not been able to keep up with them.
“If we get into the play-offs we’ll have a second chance and to do it with a big day out at Wembley would be brilliant.”
Republic of Ireland Senior International Richard Dunne exchanged advice with Under 21 player Luke Byrne as the pair teamed up to announce Ford’s exclusive ‘Swappage’ offer, where car owners can receive a Swappage Allowance of up to €1,500 in addition to the trade in value of their old vehicle against a brand new Fiesta, Focus, B-Max or C-Max. The offer runs until June 30th and further details are available at fordswappage.ie or from local Ford Dealers countrywide.
5 reasons why you should be watching the League of Ireland this weekend
Old Trafford big names fighting for United careers, says Darren Fletcher
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Sky Bet Championship Dunney Monster Harry Redknapp Play-offs Premier League promotion Richard Dunne Rs Queens Park Rangers