Chris Basham on Jack O'Connell's Sheffield United return

The Star, Sheffield

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00:00You touched on it there as well, yourself and a lot of the other boys,

00:03you know we talked about Oliver and Sharpie and people like that,

00:06didn't really get, Jack O'Connell didn't really get the proper send-off

00:09that they deserved for what they did to his football club, did they?

00:12So, to get that chance again for them to pull on his shirt one more time for other fans,

00:15it's a big thing, isn't it?

00:16Yeah, I'm excited talking about it because I think they're desperate to get out there as well and play,

00:20and obviously Sharpie's still scoring goals now for Donny,

00:23but I think he'll be holding his hand up, definitely wanting to play,

00:27and I think Jack, I've spoken to Jack, he's well up for it as many minutes as he can get.

00:31There's a load of lads there, Enda as well, I mean some of the boys are still under contract,

00:36they're still going to turn up and be there for the day, I think that's what's made me proud,

00:40is that the effort that all the lads want to give back to me is fantastic

00:43and I can only just pitch myself in the morning that they all want to be there for me as well,

00:47so it's a nice feeling.

00:48You touched on it there and talked about Jack, what happened with injuries and stuff,

00:51he was in his prime when he was cut down, so that'll be nice for him to sort of,

00:56as they get that send off and that appreciation for the fans.

00:59Yeah, I think it's always difficult when you go, you don't get the feeling that you have as a footballer

01:04when you clap the fans at the end and say thank you and everything,

01:06I think it would be nice for him to go back and get that feeling of,

01:09obviously gratitude from his point of view as well, I think at that time,

01:12same with yourself, last year, it's hard because obviously you're leaving the game,

01:17but you also, your emotions are a little bit higher and now I think once things have settled down,

01:23you realise what you've done and what you've done for the club,

01:25it means more special now, probably seeing flashbacks and things like that,

01:28so it's great for all the lads to come back and obviously give their gratitude

01:32and look at the end of the day, they're heroes to a lot of these fans,

01:35so it's nice for them to come back and also to give something back to obviously the city that they played in for so long.

01:42Was Jack someone that you spoke to during the absence?

01:45Because he's obviously been through that quite recently,

01:47he knows the sort of struggles physically and mentally,

01:50I don't know what that's like, did he help you at any point?

01:52Yeah, Jack I spoke to quite a lot, especially when I was going in for surgeries and things there,

01:56because I knew he went through the same thing as I went through,

01:59obviously I think, me I got to 36, so it's a big achievement,

02:03even nowadays to get to that age anyway, so for him I think it would have hurt him a little bit more

02:08just because of the pure fact that he had to finish when he was at the top of his game,

02:11to be honest and it wasn't nice, it wasn't nice to see,

02:14but he gave us loads of advice on how to come back,

02:17don't worry about the day-to-day things, worry about things if it's not right in a couple of months' time

02:21and he was really good and to be honest Sheffield United were fantastic

02:25and they have been from the outset, I get a message off the manager, the physio every couple of days

02:29and asking how I am, checking up on his, which is kind of what we've had ever since I've been here,

02:34really a nice close-knit group and obviously the manager now, he pushed that as best he could.

02:39You obviously saw him downed out for so long during the League One days when he first came in from Brentford

02:45and had a bit of a rocky start, it's fair to say, and then all the way up to the Premier League when he was a joke

02:50and on the Virgin England squad, where he was performing, I mean, from a team-mate point of view

02:55we were in a similar sort of position with them, because you were both bottom-down, how good was it?

02:59Yeah, I think it was always going to be close between him and Mings, who was going to make that England call-up at the time

03:05I think me, him, Mings were all at the top of the games at the time

03:09and I think obviously Jack being a left-sided centre-half and how good he was, he trained every day

03:14he gave his 110% in training and 150% in a game, he was fantastic

03:19and all the lads will always tell you how good of a player he was

03:22I think training-wise he was fantastic as well, he never had a day off

03:25and so to see him get injured like he did was disappointing more so for himself, for the lads as well

03:32because we missed him the year that we really struggled the year when he left

03:35I think we struggled to replace him, we struggled to have his energy and his demands on himself and the team

03:39he was quiet in the dressing room but he was fantastic, he was loud out on the pitch

03:42so it was great to have

03:44Yeah, and I think he'll be happy to come back here and play a few minutes and just be part of a team again

03:50because I think that's what we miss most

03:51and we all talk is when you come out of football you leave a team and you leave a special bond between each other

03:57Especially when you've had that success as well, it's not just a team that you just went through the motions

04:01it's a team that you went through a lot of ups and downs

04:04Yeah, definitely

04:05More ups and downs admittedly

04:06Yeah

04:07But you went through a lot of emotions

04:08I think when you, like in work, if you spend five, six, seven years with a team

04:12or with players who may be there for three or four years, you grow a bond together

04:16I mean, yeah I had loads of downs but I also had loads of ups as well

04:19and we knew that the ups were going to be better than the downs

04:21but the downs hurt a lot more because you didn't want to let anybody down

04:24you didn't want your teammates down, the manager down, the fans down as well

04:28and I think that was what hurt the most

04:30and the ups, you all celebrated together and you had the best time of your life

04:32but yeah, I think I loved every minute I played

04:36I loved every up I loved

04:38and the downs, you just had to respond in the right way and try and make it a right the next time

04:42I think that's kind of how I lived my life as a footballer

04:45and just, I loved training, I loved being out on the training ground

04:48and having a laughing carry on with the lads

04:50and the bond that we had for years and years was fantastic

04:52I talked about that first year in the Premier League

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