Shamrock Rovers' Estonian international savouring European run while he can

MOST OF THE Shamrock Rovers players are now set for 10 days off before returning to their Roadstone training base ahead of the resumption of the UEFA Conference League campaign later this month.

The League of Ireland Premier Division season is over and the four-in-a-row champions were deposed by Shelbourne.

Europe offers a chance to respond on a different stage, and a 2-1 win over The New Saints on Thursday has brought the Hoops to the brink of at least a play-off in the New Year.

Markus Poom won’t have the benefit of a holiday to recharge. Instead, the midfielder is included in Estonia’s squad for their two Nations League away games with Azerbaijan and Slovakia on 16 and 19 November, respectively.

There will be another few thousand kilometres of travel to deal with as well as those crucial fixtures in League C.

Estonia are on three points and a point in Baku will guarantee they avoid relegation. A play-off to maintain their status is on the horizon, so focus must switch quickly to international matters.

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“Obviously we fancy our chances. It’s going be, it’s the life of a footballer, you want to play these international games with club, with country, I’m just looking forward to it,” he said.

Given that Poom has started all three of the Conference League games – two wins and a draw – and been used more sparingly in the league, it’s perhaps a positive that he will be able to maintains his rhythm and sharpness for the trip to Rapid Vienna on the 28th of this month.

“Or tired, we’ll see. I’ll have to recover well and stay fit,” he said with a smile.

His teammate, Rovers captain Roberto Lopes, knows all about managing his body. He is another who will be on international duty over the next 10 days when he links up with Cape Verde for their African Cup of Nations qualifiers with Egypt and Mauritania. If he plays in the five remaining fixtures for club and country this year that will bring his total for 2024 up to 59 games.

For Poom, he is in the second season of his loan from Flora Tallinn and is still under contract for next season with his parent club. The only thing he is certain of is that he will be involved in the final three games of the league phase – the last one being away to Chelsea on 19 December.

Talks are planned but the future uncertain. “Basically, it’s not in my hands, it’s a tough situation, but right now I’m just focusing on the present,” he said.

Still, there is always an eye on what other possibilities. “Playing these types of games there are more eyes on you, from clubs around (Europe) not just Ireland so it’s a good platform for players like myself, you know, to maybe find a move abroad whenever that might come about, so I’m really happy to play in these games and leave my all on the pitch.”

Wins over Larne and TNS followed that opening night draw with APOEL to put Rovers in a strong position.

“The draw has suited us. We have to be realistic, these three games we’ve played now are probably the easier of the bunch so the three games coming up will be a good test for us because the league is over for us in Ireland so we have to really focus on our training and getting ourselves fit and being fit until at least Christmas, it’s going to be a real challenge.”

But these kinds of demands were exactly what Stephen Bradley used to entice the midfielder to Dublin in the first place, after also getting a taste of European football when Flora beat Rovers to reach the Conference League in 2021.

“I think if you play for Shamrock Rovers, you have to understand we have a big squad, there are a lot of players who deserve to be playing and I think especially to the end of the season now, the manager has tried to give a lot of players minutes who have deserved minutes. Emotion can take over sometimes, like I said every moment that I get right now, I’m just trying to take it as I can and the European nights for me I’ve always enjoyed them, they’re always special,” he said.

“I can really see a maturity in the squad, we’re kind of learning on the job as well, the last group stages [in 2022], they didn’t win a game but now we’ve got two wins out of three you can definitely see that the level that we’re at right now is really good. The tougher games are still to come, it will be a real test to see if we’re up for it.”

Just before he left the dressing room on Thursday he took a photo of the Conference League table as Rovers were sitting in third. “Just for memories,” he said.

The results that followed saw Rovers drop to seventh, one point ahead of Fiorentina who are in the eighth and final automatic qualification spot for the round of 16 knockout stage.

Staying there after the second half of this league phase is the next challenge on the horizon for Poom.