Hibs Women ace writing her own Doc Hollywood script - an epic comeback based on a true story

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Training ground chat with ex-Rangers coach changed everything

It’s a pitch no self-respecting studio executive could ignore. Ideal for one of those off-off-Hollywood ‘sports’ movies where disbelief isn’t merely suspended but cast to the four winds.

Should someone ever produce a film about Ciara Grant’s life, the opening scene certainly MUST begin with an exterior shot of a windswept training ground on a bitter winter night, just as Vera Pauw’s Ireland squad run for cover after a bounce game. The camera pans out to see the team doctor collecting footballs, kicking them back towards the bag as she goes.

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Cut to a close-up on Bert van Lingen, the well-travelled Dutch football coach, looking steadily more impressed. The former Rangers assistant manager breaks into a grin and calls out: “Hey Doc! You play, right? How about helping the team out in the big game …”

So maybe that last line would be taking a bit of dramatic license. But, unlike some of the corny content to be found on your streaming service of choice, it’s actually based on a true story.

Hibs midfielder Grant, who had been out of the national team set-up for the thick end of five years as she studied to become a fully qualified medical professional, admits: “It was quite funny how I got back into the Ireland squad, because Vera Pauw was the manager at the time. And I actually had been asked to cover a home-based Irish training session as the doctor, just because they were playing like an in-house game.

“It was a really cold winter night. But I was sitting there thinking: ‘I think I could still play at this level …’ And then it was so cold that I went to go collect all the footballs around the pitch.

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“So I just ran and was kicking maybe five or six footballs at the same time, you know, bringing them back. And then this man just appeared, and he was Dutch. And I was like: ‘Oh, this must be Vera's husband, Bert.’

“He asked if I played football and, when I said yeah, he said: ‘I know you play football. I just watched you.’ It was so funny.

“When I told him I was a bit old to be getting a call-up, 27, he told me that was nothing – and then he called over Vera. He asked her: ‘Do you know your doctor plays football?’

“Vera knew, of course. And so she sent me a programme to get back into shape, which gave me a wee boost of confidence, just see what I could do.

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“Six months later, which would be June, I got called into camp. And yeah, kind of made every squad after that.”

Ridiculous, right? And a testament to the quality of a footballer who started out playing the Gaelic code before falling in love with the beautiful game. And then falling out of love with it as she pursued her vocation of becoming a doctor.

“I'm one of four kids, three brothers, and I think I just followed my older brother around like a leech, my mum said,” is how Grant starts her own personal story, the 31-year-old adding: “I'm from the north-west, Donegal, so kind of a rural area. Gaelic would be very strong up there, my brother played, so I played.

“Even when I was on the Irish football team at underage, the Gaelic training was almost what got you kind of the fit and the physicality to match international level. From the schools’ under-15 squad, I played for Ireland at soccer all the way up to the senior period over a 12-15-year period.

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“And then I stepped away from football in 2016. Because I went to university as a sports scholar.

“It was almost like being a professional athlete at UCD in Dublin. It's great because it's not just football. I now have lifelong friends who are or were Olympians or high-level Gaelic players.

“We all lived together. So it was quite a great atmosphere and environment as a 19-year-old going up to Dublin. So yeah, we had fun, but then we also learned a lot from all the other athletes, especially the individual athletes because those guys are on a different level to team sports.

“I used to think we trained a lot. And then you'd meet a rower who gets up at 4 o'clock in the morning to go out in the water for three hours, comes home, sleeps, goes to college, then goes to the gym for three hours. A lot of those people were engineers, doctors, physios, scientists. A lot of high-level degrees that they were all managing to balance too. So it was quite inspiring from that point of view.”

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Eventually, the demands of studying medicine became too much, Grant recalling: “I just kind of called it quits in the end of 2016. I mean, you study for six years and then, when you graduate, you have to do your internship.

“I did a bit of travel. And then I came back to work in Donegal. And a few of my friends were like: ‘Ah, come back and play a bit in the Northern League.’

“I went back and had a great time. So that league probably wouldn't be the same standard as the Republic. But the manager pretty much was like: ‘Just do whatever you want.’

“I ended up top scorer, which had never happened before! But that kind of spurred me on then to kind of maybe look at other options.

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“I got back into working a wee bit with the FAI. So I was kind of helping out with age groups as a doctor.”

It was while working with these young international hopefuls that Grant was fully bitten by the bug again. Seeing the excitement of girls winning their first Ireland caps, even just walking into the dressing room to see all the kit laid out, reminded her of how special it felt to pull on the green jersey.

That was certainly part of the motivation that prompted Grant to resurrect a career that had taken her from Raheny to UCD, from playing in what she calls a “Sunday League-esque” competition to joining Shelbourne, Rangers, Hearts and now Hibs. Moving to Scotland, especially, was vital.

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“When I got into the Ireland squad, it had been five years since I’d last played for the national team,” she said, adding: “Back in 2016, there might have been four or five fully professional players. Whereas in 2021, it was like me and three others who weren't professional.

“I started to think: ‘I need to be professional if I want to do this.’ And then that Christmas moved to Rangers.

“The rest is geography. The rest is here, although I still don’t have a Scottish accent.”

As well as helping Hibs compete at the business end of the SWPL, Grant is currently finishing her thesis as part of a Masters in Sports Medicine. Ah, but we’ll save that for the sequel.

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