YORK City striker Robbie McDaid has lifted the lid on his time in footballing limbo.
Released by Leeds United in the summer, the Northern Ireland under-21 international spent nearly four months trying to find a new club. The uncertainty put pressure on his personal life and forced him to question whether he had a long-term future in the game.
Now, as he prepares to make his debut tomorrow against Eastleigh, the boy from County Tyrone is vowing to repay York manager Gary Mills for saving his career.
“The gaffer has been brilliant and I want to bust myself for him in every game because he has offered me a lifeline when things were not going well.
“The last few months have been very testing but now I have been given a great opportunity,” he admitted. “Whether home or away, I am going to be the hungriest guy in the changing room and I am going to do the best.”
After starting his career with Irish League part-timers Glenavon, McDaid joined Leeds two years ago but failed to make a first team impact. He spent five months on loan at Lincoln City.
“I enjoyed my two years at Leeds. It’s a Premiership club and I hope they get back there but the (former) manager Steve Evans brought a few players in. If you didn’t play for the first team on a Saturday, you played for the reserves in midweek. But, with the pool of players we had, some of us were not even in the squads. That wasn’t a good sign so I asked to go out on loan. The week before I went home for summer, they told me I was being released.
“Then I was unlucky. I went to Fleetwood Town but picked up an injury. When I went back, the manager had just resigned so it never panned out! It got tough. I was running around asking for favours and I was really disappointed with the way some people looked after me. I was made a lot of promises and not a lot of them were followed through. My agent was trying to talk to a few clubs and I didn’t kick a ball for three weeks. I went training with Lincoln and Colchester to keep things ticking over
“I was training, living out of my car, staying at mates’ houses and I was thinking ‘this is not the line of work I am going to be able to do for the rest of my life.’ It wasn’t a case of not being good enough, it was more a case of bad luck.
“I was also at Barnsley for a few weeks and I was pretty confident they were going to give me something but it spiralled out of control in the last day or two and I was given no reason why there was no offer? Then I went to Bolton for four weeks but I decided I didn’t want to play under-23 football there. I wanted first team football.
“This is a massive opportunity,” he admitted. “I don’t want to be in the position I was this summer ever again. I don’t want to have to go through that worry, putting my girlfriend, my family, and my friends through that turmoil.”
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